Hearts and Ghosts
by Mileto
Summary: Sakura has got enough stuff to sort through with Sasuke back and Konoha up to its mountains with threats, but when a mysterious woman pops up in her apartment her daily reality gets a good slap to the face.
1. Here We Are At The Start

**A/N: **Welcome to published work number second (I'll stop counting them some day I swear). I'd like to thank everyone who gave my first endeavor a read, especially those who favorited it or put me as a favorite author or on their alert, and last but certainly not least my two first reviewers ever sasusaku779 and Mary S. Jane. Now here we are at the start of a series I've been working on for a while now, and I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Naruto is no belonging of mine.

Warnings: SasuSaku and other little side pairings. There will be some sexual scenes later on, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Title derived from the song Vox Populi by 30 Seconds To Mars (I don't own them either for the record)

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><p>"GAH!" Akito said with a jump.<p>

Nanami rolled her eyes, "What is it?"

"I saw another snake!" he answered with a shudder, "Nasty creatures! And in the market place? Granted it's an outdoor one, but still, come on!"

"Uh-huh, there have been quite a few of them around recently," she replied idly as she went back to picking her produce. Dismissing his bellyaching.

Akito, still stuck up on the snake, suggested, "Maybe we should talk to the Hokage about it."

"Baka!" Nanami exclaimed, "She has far more important things to worry about than a pest infestation."

Akito nodded, agreeing, but still feeling defeated.

"Alright," Nanami said, smiling, "Just one more stop, I have to pick up Granny's medication and we can go home." She turned around to bump into a tall, hooded figure shrouded in a black cloak. "Sumimasen!" she apologized, "My fault. I wasn't looking where I was going."

The man gave a small bow of his head and passed by her to the produce stand to pick up a tomato. The shop keeper looked up to see if he would try to take it without paying, and was tossed a small coin in payment for it.

Nanami and Akito began to head for the pharmacy counter when a Nanami was tapped on the shoulder. She turned around to find the hooded man holding out a wallet. Her wallet that must have tumbled out of her small purse when she bumped into him.

"Oh! Arigato," she said taking her wallet, "I didn't even realize it was gone."

The man bowed his head slightly again and almost turned to walk away when Nanami asked, "Are you new in the village?"

The man paused and shook his head.

"Huh…I don't think I've seen you around before," she mused, trying to make idle conversation and be polite to her wallet's rescuer.

The man didn't answer. Instead he turned around and began to walk away before being called to by Nanami's male companion. "Oi! You don't know too many manners do you?"

"Akito, stop. He just returned my wallet with _all_ the money in it, you're acting like he just spat in your face!" she urged.

Akito drew a kunai out of his pouch and held it out to point at the hooded man, "You! Stranger!"

The man he addressed stopped, but did not turn to face him.

"What is your name and purpose for being in Konoha?" Akito demanded.

"Yamate! Why are you making a scene?" she whispered loudly to her companion, then said to the man, "Sir, I'm sorry about him, please go on your way."

"I'm making a _scene_, because I have an obligation as a Leaf Village shinobi to confront any suspicious persons, and baby, he's suspicious as hell!" he answered, "Now, what is your name and purpose in Konoha, stranger?"

The man spoke for the first time in a low voice that was ominous in the way it divulged no emotion, "It's in your best interest to put away the kunai and forget you saw me."

Akito almost asked how he knew he had pulled a kunai when the man hadn't actually turned to look at him with the weapon in his hands, but instead ordered, "Name and purpose!"

The man turned around and studied the area from under his hood before sighing, "I suppose too many people have already seen me for this incident to be easily forgotten." He was referring to the small crowd of civilians now watching their encounter. Slowly he removed his hood and inwardly smirked at the reaction he got out of his challenger who was now visibly shaken.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," he announced as he looked around at the frightened faces gazing at him, "My purpose for being in Konoha…is none of your fucking business."

With this a full team of masked ANBUs were surrounding the Uchiha, all keeping a good radius of about 5 meters.

Sasuke, unfazed by the six new opponents looked around with his bored eyes and said almost with a sigh, "I request an audience with the Hokage."

"The only audience you're getting is with the executioner of Konoha," the assumed leader shouted, "It has been declared by the Village Hidden in the Leaves that you are to be killed on sight or upon being captured you are to be put to death."

"Do you honestly think you all could kill or capture me?" Not even sparing the leader a glance as he watched as the by-standers began to leave the market square.

"Surrender now, Uchiha! Let's not make this any harder than—"

"I request an audience with the Hokage," Sasuke's voice wasn't raised, but you had to be deaf not to hear the irritation in it.

"Do you surrender?"

Sasuke didn't think such a stupid question deserved a response. Not from him anyway.

"We show no mercy for traitors!" This appeared to be the command for every ANBU under his command to launch a kunai at him. Sasuke deflected them individually with nothing more than the index and middle fingers of his left hand. They're next wave of attack seemed to be what could be referred to as a free for all seeing as there was no detectable rhyme or rhythm to their attacks. Never mind strategy.

Soon the amusement of effortlessly dodging and deflecting their attacks wore off and he vanished to reappear behind the so-called leader. The ANBUs were still frantically looking around for him when a great, black snake slithered out of his sleeve and coiled itself around the upper body and neck of their captain.

"I don't want any blood to be shed over this, so step aside."

"Don't let him get to Lady Hokage! Take him down, now!" Sasuke's hostage ordered before having his airway constricted by the large, black snake coming from the Uchiha's sleeve.

The ANBUs, as expected didn't back down, but stood prepared to attack. The rogue ninja sighed and closed his eyes, as if tired and about to sleep, but quickly opened them to reveal the blood red power of his clan. Immediately as if all their pressure points had been squeezed they all fell onto their stomachs, unconscious.

Sasuke then began to lead the ANBU captain through the village towards the main building of Konoha, where the Hokage's office was. Many ninjas crossed their path, however, they were forced to stand down because of the Uchiha's hold on their comrade. Soon they arrived inside the building and into the receptionist's room outside the Hokage's office.

"Uchiha Sasuke?" Shizune exclaimed at the sight of the man, "Wh-what the hell are you doing here?"

~()~

_Goddamn it, _Tsunade thought to herself. The more the Hokage looked at the facts, the more and more discouraged she got. The state of the entire Fire Country was grim as one of the southern regions had been in full revolt for the past six months. It was nothing a good amount of experienced shinobi couldn't handle, but it did take a lot of the jounins away from the village, only leaving behind the homeland security portion of the ANBUs and forcing her to assign some jounin work to chuunins and chuunin missions to genins. It was not boding well for Konoha at all. They were extremely vulnerable to attack from the neighboring countries, and with the Cloud Village close to inaugurating a new Raikage, who does not seem to want to continue his predecessor's peace talks with Konoha, things aren't exactly looking up.

Feeling like it couldn't get any worse she reached under her desk for her sake and took a swig before her jaw dropped at the spectacle that burst through her doors.

"Uchi-ya?" slightly embarrassed by her slurred speech. Admittedly it was not her first sip of sake that afternoon…or bottle for that matter, "Just what the fuck are you doing here?" _Serves me right for thinking nothing else could go wrong._ She thought angrily.

"Hokage-sama!" the ANBU hostage cried, "I'm sorry, we couldn't stop him! Don't worry about me just kill him!"

_Shit, I wish! Unfortunately that's not how we do it in Konoha_, "No comrade left behind." She assured him with a forced smile.

Sasuke only smirked, which pissed Tsunade off further because it let her know he knew perfectly well she wanted to attack him, but her morals were getting in the way.

"What do you want, you little fucker?"

Sasuke squinted as if judging her diction, then replied bluntly, "A fair trial."

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><p><strong>AN: **Good? Bad? Continue? Abandon? Either way review please! By the way, Sasuke never met Madara so Itachi is as of yet a bad guy, as for other liberties taken with the story I think they're pretty clear, if not, tell me in your REVIEWS.  
>Little Side Note: I've got this whole story pretty much written so I'd like some help from you good people in deciding whether or not the rest of it shall see the light of day.<p> 


	2. Eyes I've Deceived

**A/N: Fuck it. Here goes Chapter 2.**

Disclaimer: Naruto ain't mine. A fact I must live with every day.

Chapter title taken from You Know My Name by Chris Cornell (Casino Royale theme song)

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><p>One Day Later<p>

"Uchiha Sasuke," Tsunade addressed him carefully, "You have been brought before me, the Hokage of Konohagakure, by your own request to put forth justification as to why your predetermined punishment of death should not be carried out. What do you have to say?"

"I have committed no crime punishable by death against Konoha." He stated simply, and without even standing up as it was expected when speaking to the Hokage.

"You stand when you talk to the Hokage, even when you talk nonsense, you brat!" one of her advisors scolded only to be met with an infamous glare from the infamous Sasuke Uchiha.

Tsunade held up a hand to tell her advisor to stand down. _Let's not get the kid riled up._ But as she looked at him the realization that Sasuke was no longer a kid and just about a fully grown man hit her. Full force. Doing the math in head as she checked the birth date printed on his file she figured out he'd be eighteen in just over three months.

"No crime against Konoha?" she snapped back to reality, "Care to enlighten us?"

Sasuke scoffed, "You're all alive aren't you?"

The court erupted into angry and offended shouts and calls for execution until Tsunade cried for order. Untrusting eyes continued to move up and down the stoic Uchiha as the Hokage spoke again, "But there's a lot of other people that aren't so lucky."

"And not one of them a shinobi or resident of the Leaf," then he added with a shrug, "…well, not the ones that _I_ killed anyway."

Tsunade considered this. Going over every name she had in her records of Sasuke's confirmed victims she sighed, "I hate to admit it, but that's true."

Sasuke sat back with a silent semblance of satisfaction.

"There is still, however, this nasty business about you being a mass murderer."

No reaction from the detached youth. She tried to read his eyes, but they were written in some archaic language.

Finally deciding she'd have to dig deeper at his confident outside shell, she continued with what were admittedly less than professional jabs at his ego, "And how could we, the _good_ people of the Leaf Village, just allow a criminal such as yourself back into our society?" she waited for him to speak, but figured he wouldn't, "I just don't see any place for the likes of you to fit in."

"How about on the frontlines of this looming war?"

This left the entire court, including the Hokage, speechless.

"Oh, yes," Sasuke sat up straighter now, "I know." And with that the tables turned. Oh yes, there was no doubt about it. In this battle, the Uchiha was holding the higher ground.

Tsunade knew she had to speak up. She couldn't be disrespected by this brat in her own court. She couldn't show weakness in front of this criminal. "What exactly do you _think_ you know?" _He must have just heard a rumor or something. He's bluffing._

Sasuke smirked, "I know the soon to be Raikage isn't exactly a fan of Konoha, and your man-power isn't exactly what it used to be with the Southern Provinces' Riots."

_But what if he's not?_

"The Land of Fire is falling, Tsunade," he glanced around to savor the expression on the court's face at the less than respectful addressing of their precious Lord Hokage, "The other allied nations don't plan on getting involved, and you're just about out of options. War is inevitable."

Silently, Tsunade contemplated this. After a full minute she spoke, "You've killed shinobi of the Kumogakure, correct?"

Sasuke replied nonchalantly, "In honest battle situations not unjustly."

"Unjust or not, I'm sure Kumogakure itself would like to put you to death as…revenge. That's something I'm sure _you_ can understand, Sasuke." Tsunade smiled at the sudden tenseness of the man on trial, "I do have this cure all option of turning you over to the Cloud Village as a peace offering. You get put to death, the Raikage's trust in us is strengthened and war is avoided. Everybody wins, ne? …granted maybe you're not winning here, but that's really not my problem is it?"

Tsunade was waiting for the speechlessness she wanted to follow, but instead got something unexpected and unsettling. Sasuke Uchiha's lips has curled up into what must have been his own depraved interpretation of a smile. A low chuckle filled the entire court. She felt as if a corpse's cold fingers were stroking her spine.

_When Uchiha Sasuke laughs it can't possibly be a good thing_.

As if hearing her thoughts he looked up at her and said, "You're right." He answered. Before she could say anything he continued, "That's an option where I would not win, however in the long run, neither would you."

"How so?"

"Do you honestly believe a little peace offering is going to all of a sudden make you and the Raikage best-friends? I'm honored that you think I'm that big a prize, Tsunade, but…I doubt they'd kill me anyway…" he trailed off.

"Why do you say that?"

Sasuke shrugged smugly.

"Uchiha, answer me. Why wouldn't they execute you?"

"How do you think I found out about all these political issues?" Sasuke asked, "I'm a rogue ninja, why would I know or care about anything about tension between two villages when I'm affiliated with neither?"

"Why don't you tell me?"

He grunted, "A messenger boy, Hosei Rokuro, gave me a manila folder that contains Kumo's maps, finances, military numbers, the likes…Apparently the Raikage intended on recruiting me to fight for Kumogakure, and I almost did. His deal after all was enticingly lucrative."

"How do I even know that's even true?"

"You don't."

With an annoyed sigh the Hokage asked, "And where exactly is this _folder_ that supposedly contains all this information?"

"With friends."

"What?"

Sasuke raised one eyebrow coyly as if to tell her _'You heard me.'_

"Uchiha, you do realize that if I have reason to believe you are withholding information I can order you to be tortured, yes?"

The Uchiha nodded, "I'm well aware."

Tsunade stared at the aggravating teenager that sat before her. She was practically shaking with rage, "Listen here you little brat! You better stop wasting my time! Just tell me what you want in exchange for that goddamn information!"

Sasuke's eyebrows both shot up now.

_Shit,_ Tsunade wanted to slap herself for letting her frustration get the better of her, _He smells blood in the water._  
>"So you believe the information exists."<p>

"Let's suppose I do." _He's definitely not bluffing. With the death penalty on the table the stakes are way too high…right?_

She hated how much his smirk made it seem like he could hear her thoughts, "Now what do I want for it…" his tongue licked his lips, "total forgiveness."

"What?" "Outrageous!" "Preposterous!" "Hang him!" "No mercy for traitors!" "Villain!"

"Shut up!" Tsunade ordered the court, then turned back to Sasuke, "Out of the question."

"And here I am with not only amnesty but compensation over in the Land of Lightning."

The Hokage's patience was definitely being tested, "Why do you even want to return to Konoha? You left when you were 13, and haven't looked back until now…so why?"

His pale fingers touched each other idly as he silently thought about the question, "I've exacted my revenge."

"Oh, and how was that?" the Hokage blurted out tauntingly.

Sasuke's eye twitched but he continued as if she hadn't spoken, "I've traveled all over this world. I've encountered enough pathetic, stupid people…"

_Still an arrogant asshole_, Tsunade thought.

"I'm tired, and I can't take it anymore. I just want to sit out my days in peace. Here."

The Hokage let the boy's words sink in. She didn't think it possible but she almost felt sorry for him. _Not even 18 years on this earth and he's probably already seen more death and horror in the world than I have. _In a way what he'd done wasn't his fault. Not only had his brother traumatized and isolated him at a very young age, the village didn't reach out to him until it was too late. Unfortunately, though, life wasn't fair. "And so you think we're just going to accept you back with open arms?" People couldn't be judged differently by how badly their lives sucked. Crimes had to be punished. Sasuke Uchiha made his choices, now he'd suffer the consequences.

"Not exactly."

"Not at all, Uchiha," her voice was more commanding than ever, "You are to produce the documents you claim to have or I will see a rope around your neck."

"I've already stated the terms under which I'll gladly give you the information."

Tsunade slammed her gavel, "I've heard enough of this! Morino Ibiki!"

"Hai!" the scarred man answered from the wings of the courtroom.

"You are to torture Uchiha-_san_ until he gives us this information! After we have it," she shot her eyes back towards the ever so calm black haired man, "Uchiha Sasuke you have been found guilty of being a traitor and a murderer, and are hereby sentenced to death by hanging!"

Many people in the court erupted into riotous applause as Sasuke was pulled out of his seat by the ANBU guards and pulled by his chakra suppressing shackles out of the court. The room was in too much of an uproar for anyone but the Hokage to notice the sick smile on the black eyed boy's face.

Five Days Later

Ibiki Morino was up for the fourth straight night. Ever since the torturing of Sasuke Uchiha began he found his dreams haunted by the cruel boy's presence. Even when awake Ibiki thought he could sometimes feel those obsidian eyes moving over him. Mocking him. It was like the boy couldn't feel. In all his years of being an interrogation and torture expert he never encountered anyone that withstood pain as well as that boy did. He kept replaying the awfulness of it over and over in his head, trying to find a single moment of weakness…

_Ibiki plunged the jagged knife into the pale flesh of his subject, "Where is the folder?" he would bellow before pulling the knife out and stabbing him again. The blood was rolling from the boy's pale hand and pooling onto the floor. Its rotting scent was beginning to make Ibiki just the tiniest bit dizzy. If he could just get some fresh air…_

_"Getting frustrated, Ibiki?" Sasuke mumbled with his reddened mouth, "I noticed you didn't spend much time on the psychological torture. We're already here at the physical part."_

_Ibiki thrusted the knife into Sasuke's thigh, leaving it there so he could grab the boy's middle finger. Slowly he snapped it back and waited for the familiar cries of pain, but instead was met with something he's never heard before and never expected to hear._

_The boy was laughing. Laughing at him.  
>"Was that supposed to make me beg for mercy?" he jeered throwing his head back as his harsh criticism of Ibiki's work sounded clearly all through the halls. Declaring his madness to anyone who'd listen. <em>

_HAHAHAHAHAHA!_

…_.HAHA! …HAHAHA!_

…_HAHAHA! HAHAHA!...  
>…HAHAHAHA! …HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!<em>

The wicked laughs still rang in his ear. The wild look in his brutal eyes. Over and over, Ibiki tried to think of a way to effectively torture him, but after what he witnessed the days before he wasn't sure there was one. Torture someone like him? If the boy did feel pain, he seemed to enjoy it. Ibiki shook the idea of the Uchiha being the Devil's incarnation from his head. That was nonsense, after all. Ibiki set down the beer that must have been giving him these stupid ideas.

If Sasuke Uchiha was a human being, which he most definitely was he could be tortured…but how? He'd done everything to break him. Everything within his power anyway.

_He's just not mine to torture._

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed ;) and who put this story on alert. I'm not sure how frequently my updates will be with final exams beginning to blot out the sun on my horizon, but summer shall soon prevail, so that's nice. Please tell me what you think in les commentaires. And I promise Sakura is coming, I just had to establish the whole Sasuke situation.**


	3. Hands On My Mind

**A/N: Lightning update. Insomnia is fun!**

Disclaimer: Naruto no is mine.

Chapter title taken from Fadeaway by Celldweller.

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><p>One Week Later<br>The Southern Provinces of Fire Country

Sakura stayed at the back of the squadron. Neji Hyuuga led the group, scanning for any people who wished them harm with his Byakugan. Luckily they weren't facing shinobi but the enemy seemed to be everywhere. The rebels numbered in the thousands and were only gaining more and more pledges to their cause by the day.

"Sakura," Neji said just loudly enough for it to reach her ears, "We have a wounded man surrounded by enemies around the corner about 100 paces ahead. Naruto, you and I will engage while Sakura heals him and gets him out of there. Shikamaru and Ino, you guys stay close to Sakura and make sure no one gets in the way of her and the fallen comrade's escape."

They all nodded their understanding.

"GO!" Neji commanded once they reached the corner.

Sakura sprinted and dodged her way to the man down and instantly dropped to begin healing him and Shikamaru and Ino made sure none of the rebels got through to attack her while she did so.

_Come on…open your eyes!_ Sakura thought as she willed her chakra to heal the man and soon his eyes did open.

"He's stable!" she cried out to no one in particular, but Neji seemed to hear her.

"Go, Sakura! Get him out of here!" He ordered while slinking through the sword swings of five rebels. Naruto meanwhile had his hands full with two especially large opponents and Shikamaru and Ino fought off three each.

"Can you walk?" Sakura asked the man to be met with confused blinks, Poor bastard can't even talk…She slung the man over her shoulder, evading a rebel's sword while at the same time kicking the rebel into a building.

"Nice hit, forehead!" Ino joked, trying to mask that she was struggling with her opponent's fast slashes.

"Tired already, pig?" Sakura called as she began weaving through the oncoming rebels to escape.

Ino connected a solid punch with the man's head, knocking him out, "Oh yeah, I can barely stay awake over here."

"See ya, when you get back!" Sakura was free to full out sprint back to their camp.

A Few Hours Later

"How are you feeling?" Sakura asked the man handing him some soup.

The man's eyes still looked tired but showed understanding, "Much better, arigato."

"That's good…well, I'll let you get your rest now." She stood and smiled as the man thanked her again. Once outside of the tent she caught sight of a man by the fire. "Identify yourself!" she called, kunai drawn.

"Sakura-sama!" the man answered with a bow, "Lady Tsunade requests your immediate return to the village."

"Right now?"

The man held back a snide comment such as, _'that is what immediate means after all'_, out of respect for his superior and nodded.

"But…the rebellion and this squad doesn't have another medic and—"

"A replacement has already been sent and will arrive shortly. We have to go right now, the Hokage says it's urgent."

That was all Sakura needed to hear. If her shisou was sending a messenger to her in the middle of the night it must have been a whole new special kind of urgent, so she packed her bags and left without another question. Until they reached Konoha of course.

~()~

"Tsunade-shisou!" Sakura exclaimed as soon as she arrived in the Hokage's office, "What happened?"

"Sakura, sit down. There's something…delicate I'm going to tell you. Now, I need your help with this and I didn't want this to be something that got sprung on you when you got back."

Her shisou's grim tone was concerning her. _This sounds serious…What could this be about? She really needs my help? Even with the rebellion going on?_ A million other things went through her head all as she took her seat.

The Hokage began, "Uchiha Sasuke…" Shooting a nervous glance at her assistant Shizune sitting quietly in the corner.

_Oh my God, he's dead. How should I react? Should this even affect me? What if he's not dead, though? What if he's done something even more awful? Started a cult…Blew up a country…Poisoned the world water supply…_Her mind was going a million miles a minute. Thinking of at least sixty different crimes against humanity Sasuke Uchiha could've possibly committed before Tsunade even finished her short, simple sentence.

"…has returned to Konoha."

Her mind reached a screeching halt.

"Sakura?" Tsunade waved her hand in front of the dumbstruck rosette, "Earth to Sakura! Hey! Did you just hear me?"

"He's back?" She snapped back to reality.

"Yeah."

"In Konoha?"

"That would be what is implied by back, yes."

Sakura processed then slowly arrived at her next question, "Where is he?"

The Hokage nodded to Shizune, "Tell Ibiki to bring him in." The aid offered a quick affirmation then speed walked out to the room.

"Wait, bring _him_ in? Right now? At this _very_ moment?"

"Well, it'll take a minute or two for him to be brought up here but—"

"How is this not springing this on me?"

"I broke it to you slowly."

"Slowly? You said he's here then told Shizune to bring him in!"

"Yeah but I let you take seat—you know what? It's not important—What's important is that you understand the task I'm charging you with."

Sakura's interest and worry increased.

Tsunade continued, "I believe Uchiha Sasuke is withholding information that can be used against Kumo if we are to go to war. Morino Ibiki has been torturing him for the past 11 days and he needs medical treatment before he can undergo more if he is to survive."

"That's it?"

"Not exactly…you and he were teammates before. I want you to gain his trust and if possible find a weakness. Something we can use to make him give us the information.

"I understand," Sakura said meakly.

"Sakura, this is war, okay? You need to be ruthless, but at the same time you can't let him know you're part of the torture process. Play on everything you know about him. Everything. Dreams. Fears."

"Hokage-sama, I honestly don't know much more than you. Sasuke was always closed off from me. He just thought I was annoying, he didn't exactly confide in me…"

"Sasuke's not as closed a book as he'd have people believe. You know more than you think. Just try to replay memories from back then, anything small. Glances. Gestures. Twitches of emotion on that stoic fucking face of his. Anything, Sakura! This war could very well be determined by this."

The door opened. Shizune stepped through. A masked ANBU guard stepped through. Then ever so gracefully stepped through the last surviving Uchiha.

"Sasuke," Sakura stopped herself from saying any more.

His eyes stayed enticed by the floor. Blood, cuts, and bruises masked his handsome face. Sakura almost gagged at the sight of his lacerated hands. Fingers faced every direction they were never meant to face. His dirty bare feet had obviously been stepped on and slashed at viciously and the smell that came from them actually did make Sakura gag a little in her mouth. Despite all this Sasuke Uchiha stood tall like the god he thought he was.

"Sakura," Tsunade's voice shook her from her staring, "Attend to the Uchiha…now."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!"

Sakura stood up, pausing slightly when Sasuke's head raised to look at her. She averted her eyes and slinked around him to lead him and his ANBU guards to the hospital. Not a word was spoken by the time they reached the hospital. Sakura held the door open as the ANBUs stepped aside to allow Sasuke inside.

"We gave him a drug that makes it just about impossible for him to access his chakra, we'll be waiting in the front lobby." One ANBU guard said before he shut the door. Sakura had to shake herself from the slight paralysis cause by the ANBU guard's word choice. _Just about impossible…just about…almost…not quite…Damn you syllogism._

Sakura looked at the shackles on her former teammate's wrists that coiled up his arms giving the impression his forearms were glued together. How the am I supposed to do this?

"The smaller one left it on the table."

Sakura jumped at the sound of his voice. So familiar, but almost unrecognizable. "Left what?" she shouted her question. Frustrated by her unsubtle fear.

"The key," he answered with his tranquil voice, "It's on the counter by the door."

Sakura looked over to where his eyes shifted, "So it is." Taking the key to the lock restraining him she silently decided, I'm not going to let him get to me. _From this point I won't show weakness and I sure as hell won't show fear_. The truth of it was, though, she wanted to run out of the room screaming. She was unraveling the binds of a monster. Releasing it. _No, wait, he can't use his chakra._ _There's nothing he can do to me…just about…almost…not quite._ She tried desperately to assure herself as she conducted her medical examination of Sasuke in silence. It seemed no matter how beat up he was, Sasuke Uchiha was still as fine as he was the day she first set eyes on him. Probably even more so.

Even with his filthy prison rags it was no difficult task to see the outline of his chest and abs. The several tears in the cloth revealed the pallid, alabaster skin of his that could peek out from the blood and dirt.

He had grown so much, towering over her even more than he did during their early adolescence.

Sakura tried to muster up the courage to speak again, but found her throat had different plans and had conspired with her tongue to betray her with a single sound, "Sss." She relied on a head bob to get the point across that she wanted Sasuke to sit on the edge of the bed so she could begin healing. Once he did so, Sakura decided to start out with his feet. She kneeled down and began to channel her chakra into the wound, healing it just enough for the wound to still be tender. She began to do the same with his hands.

Now the fun part: resetting the fingers.

"You know what I have to do with these right?" she asked with a little more hesitation in her voice than was to her liking.

Sasuke nodded his understanding.

Sakura counted and cracked his index finger back into place. To her surprise Sasuke didn't even jump at the pain. He just kept his eyes on her.

"Okay…that was good…uh, next one…two…three!"

Once again no reaction.

She prepared the next finger, rattled by his tranquility, "One…two…thr-"

"Don't look so terrified, Sakura."

Startled, Sakura accidentally snapped his ring finger the wrong direction. "Fuck!" The bone was poking out a bump in his skin, "Oh God!" She snapped it back and looked up to meet his tranquil dark gaze, "Doesn't it hurt?"

"Yeah," he replied solemnly. His muscles were still tensed and his jaw was tight.

"Then…why aren't you screaming?"

"If I screamed would it stop the pain?" She knew it was a rhetorical question and decided to just continue resetting the fingers. After she healed both his hands, Sasuke spoke again, "You can tell your Hokage she won't get anything out of me like this."

"And why not?"

"You can't hurt me into squealing what I know and begging for mercy."

Sakura scoffed, "You know, Sasuke, you're not as tough as you think you are."

"That's probably true," he admitted with a disappointed sigh, "But at least I'm a lot stronger than you all think I am…and the situation doesn't exactly help."

Sakura didn't like the excited tone in his voice one bit. And Sasuke knew that immediately.

He grinned, "Come on, Sakura. You know the only person in this pathetic place that stands a chance against me is Naruto, and where is he again?"

_Shit_, was the only thing she could think as her eyes were caught in his. She didn't think it was possible, but his eyes had grown even blacker than she had seen them last. Colder. Emptier.

"Tell your Hokage to just let me go. I'm offering this village the ultimate victory over Kumo if she would just let me restore my clan and die here in peace."

Sakura was about to tell him to go fuck himself before he grabbed her wrists. Tight.

"You wanna help?" he whispered cruelly. His eyes wide with primal stimulation.

"Help?" she asked. He only gripped tighter. "Sasuke, let go of me." She stayed calm on the outside, but in her head she was screaming. The longer she looked into the abysses of his eyes, the clearer it became to her that this was simply not her teammate. Something was coming over him. He stood up and pulled her closer to his chest. Reasserting how much bigger he was than her.

"Just calm down, I won't hurt you," his voice was even lower now. He lowered his neck to bury his nose in her neck, taking in her scent. "As long as you don't resist."

"Sasuke, stop." Sakura tried to manage some form of finality in her voice.

"Shut up." The finality in his voice was no question there.

Sakura tried to pull away but her defenses crumbled for her greater strength had been lost in his black eyes. Panicking, she used what was left in her to jerk her head away and quickly come back to head-butt him. She ran to the door and screamed for help before Sasuke took a handful of her hair, craning her neck back.

She made an effort to spit in his face, "Go to hell!"

He couldn't seem to hear her and soon Sakura lost her own thoughts in his wild laughter. She almost didn't hear the ANBUs opening the door. Their orders for her to release her were distant and fading still…She shut her eyes, ready for whatever would happen.

Sasuke's arms disappeared from her neck. "What did you just say?"

Sakura started gasping for air.

"What the fuck did you just say?" He yelled.

She looked up to see he was addressing her and not the ANBUs. "What are you talking about?"

Sasuke's eyes were wide. His hands trembling. Wait…Sasuke's hands didn't tremble. What the madness was this?

The ANBU guards took the opportunity to jump Sasuke and slap another pair of chakra handcuffs on him. He didn't fight them. Instead his head hung and his eyes strained to stay shut.

Sakura was still catching her breath by the time ANBU had taken him away.

_What the fuck did I just say?_

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><p><strong>AN: A tid bitsy longer you may have noticed. I hope ya'll enjoyed this third installment, I won't really now unless you review will I? Helpful suggestions extremely welcome. **

**P.S. Any 30STM fans out there that caught my oh so subtle reference ^_^? **


	4. What Makes Me Real

**A/N: Thank you again to everyone who has put this story on alert. I meant to update a bit sooner, but one thing led to another and I ended up climbing under a waterfall in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley. Good stuff. But yeah, chapter 4…read, review and be merry.**

Disclaimer: Naruto is to Masashi Kishimoto as this fic is to me.

Chapter title derived from Pieces by Sum 41.

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><p><span>Tsunade's Office<span>

"And then he just let you go?"

Sakura nodded, "I could feel his chakra flooding through his foot shackles. He could have easily killed us all. But then..." The girl's body shivered for only a second.

Tsunade could sense she was still trying to process what happened. The wiser woman let her student take her time.

"He let me go and he was…stunned."

"Why?"

"I don't know," she shook her head as if in an attempt to shuffle up the cards her thoughts were written on so a useful one could come out on top, "but it was like he was startled by something, almost frightened even."

"Frightened? Uchiha?" Sakura confirmed with a nod before Tsunade continued, "What was he _frightened_ of?"

"That's the thing. It was something I said…" The Hokage waited for her to finish, but nothing followed.

"Well, what did you say?"

Sakura shrugged.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I don't know."

"How the fuck could you not know? Just tell me what you said."

Sakura's eyes darted around, searching for eavesdroppers, "Well…I don't remember saying anything to him. I've replayed it over and over. One second he was bent on killing us all, the next second he let go of me. No in between."

The Hokage sat in silence with her head resting on her entwined fingers. After a long while she spoke with defeated sigh, "Go home, Sakura. Get some rest." Her pupil nodded and went to leave, stopping at the door.

"Hokage-sama, if I may, I'd like to share some observations with you."

"Of course."

Sakura contorted her face like a child being forced to tell the truth, "You won't get anything out of torturing Sasuke. If I were you, I'd just find a way to let him be free."

"You think he deserves freedom?"

"He doesn't _deserve_ it, but think about it Lady Hokage. If Sasuke's telling the truth about the information and he doesn't tell us where it is, that's a major loss. And even if he's lying what could we lose from giving him a reason to be loyal to Konoha? Plus we retain the Sharingan and Sasuke's other skills for the battle field if we do go to war with Kumo."

"Say he is lying about the documents, and he's a spy for Kumo sent here to get information on _us_ or worse destroy Konoha from the inside. How do I know he's loyal to the Hidden Leaf?"

Sakura sighed and unwillingly admitted, "I just know. Something tells me he still cares about his home."

"Something tells you?" Tsunade repeated to be met by a pink haired nod, "So essentially it's a hunch."

"Trust me, Hokage-sama, Uchiha Sasuke will not harm Konoha."

The teacher considered her student's words, "Sakura, I greatly value your opinion, and genuinely thank you for your input…" a short pause dragged itself out, "But I can't jeopardize the safety of the village without a legitimate reason. I'm sorry."

Sakura nodded silently and left.

Six Months Later

The torture of Sasuke continued three more weeks after he attacked Sakura. Each week he was brought into treatment once, and each time the treatment was performed in utter silence. Green and black eyes never catching one another. Eventually, the message got through to Tsunade and even Ibiki that Sasuke simply wouldn't break. Not once did he scream, not once did he allow himself to whimper or show any sign of pain. So the Hokage had him thrown in jail for a few months before finally deciding to take her advice and let him out, but not without any consequences of course.

Sakura wasn't exactly notified of what they did with him, but rumor had it his chakra had been sealed, he was getting mental treatment and on house arrest with fifty ANBU guards. Of course, she assumed that last part was an exaggeration, but that's what the rumors said. Don't shoot the messenger.

But imagine her surprise when the doorbell rang and none other than Sasuke Uchiha stood on her steps.

Even through the haze of her surprise she could see the bags under his eyes clear as day. His onyx orbs were only partly visible in his drooping, bloodshot eyes.

"Sak—erm—Hello, Sakura." Sasuke initiated a conversation with her. _Is there something here I'm missing?…Again?_

"What are you doing here?" she demanded an answer. Her hand lingered close to her kunai sack, not escaping Sasuke's notice.

"Nice warm welcoming I see," the signature Sasuke sarcasm was there, but the typical tone and attitude was nowhere to be found. His voice was even more detached than usual. It seemed not only detached from people and his surroundings, but himself. Like the words he spoke were coming from somewhere else. A very empty somewhere else at that, "Relax, Sakura, don't look so terrified." He told her.

"What are you doing here?" she repeated, louder.

"Dr. Tatsuya…my psychologist, says," he cleared his throat then began speaking as if quoting the doctor word for word, "the road to recovery begins with seeking forgiveness from those I have wronged so that I too may learn to forgive." He handed her a slip of paper, "So if you could just sign this that'd be great."

She looked at the paper, which evidently was meant to be proof that she had forgiven him. Simple enough, but one small problem…"So you just want me to sign this to make it all go away?"

"It'd be greatly appreciated," he droned.

"Oh, that was heartfelt." Sakura shook her head and shoved the paper back to the raven-haired boy, "But it's not that simple."

"Come on, Sakura. Just help me out here."

"Why should I? Have you ever helped me out?"

Sasuke made an effort to roll his eyes, "And here we go," he muttered.

"Yeah! Here we go! How can you expect me to just help _you_ out? You! Of all people! Why would I waste any time, or energy helping the great _Uchiha_ Sasuke?"

A subtle hint of anger showed on his face, though Sakura was almost certain he would normally be steaming by now, "Sakura…please," he whispered edgily. _Please?_ "Just sign the goddamn paper and let me be on my way." _Why isn't he pissed? I'm yelling at him, why isn't he yelling at me? Aren't we fighting?_

She decided to at least try to return some of this alleged civility, "I can't. After everything you've done to me and to this village. You don't deserve my help." She began to shut the door, but it was stopped by Sasuke's foot. A single black eye met a green one in the small gap left by the unclosed door.

She wanted to finish this, "The answer is no, Sasuke," Once again finality failed her.

"You don't understand what—"

"No, I never understand. I can't understand hardship, or solitude, or you. I know. I get it. Save the speech because I've come to terms with it!"

Sasuke's neck seemed to grow tired of holding up his head and he leaned it against the door, "I'm not talking about that," finally she could sense anger in his voice, but only faintly, "I'm really trying, okay? You think I want to be like this for the rest of my life? You think I enjoy being a fucking monster? I don't! I'm talking to the damn shrink. I'm doing the treatments. I'm taking the pills," _Pills? _"And it doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere because you're still scared! So—you know what…" He pulled back his foot allowing it to slam shut.

"I'm done. Have a nice life, Sakura." She heard him drag out the words from outside the door. His unbalanced footfalls slowly fading. _I'm going to regret this…_Sakura opened the door.

"Sasuke…" he turned around at the sound of her voice, "you want to come in?"

He gave a small, spastic nod and came back towards the door and into Sakura's house.

"I have some left over Chinese in the fridge if you're hungry."

"That would be nice. Arigato." His voice was almost robotic, programmed to carry on a normal conversation.

After a few minutes of radiation cooking, they sat at the dining table to begin eating.

"How is Dr. Tatsuya? I've heard good things about him."

Sasuke shrugged, "He seems to give a damn."

There were only so many ways to respond to that and none of them seemed right, so Sakura nodded and allowed the awkward silence to sink in. After letting it run its course, she said stupidly, "So, what kind of pills does he have you take?" _That was your worst silence breaker ever, Sakura. Officially._ She thought disappointedly to herself.

Sasuke's fork and knife movements slowed and he took a few moments before saying, "They keep me…composed." He went on eating at his previous below average pace.

"What time do you have to be back?" Sakura tried to once again to pump some blood into their dying little dialogue.

"Have to be back?" He repeated with a slightly lost expression.

"You can't be out forever right?"

Sasuke furrowed his tired brow, "I can't?"

"Aren't you on house arrest?"

"No."

Sakura felt a wave of stupidity come over her, wash her onto Beach Gauche, and leave her there with a massive, sandy wedgie, "Oh—I'm sorry. I just heard from—I meant…never mind."

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear." He practically lectured her with his tone.

"Yeah, I didn't. They said something about fifty ANBU guards too, but I could tell that wasn't—I'm really sucking ass at not making this awkward, aren't I?"

Sasuke shrugged, "You could do worse."

"Let's talk about something else."

A fascinated eyebrow rose on the Uchiha's face, "Such as?"

_Asking about how he's been in the village has been a dead end…And I can hardly ask about his time outside of the village while still keeping the conversation light._ "It's been nice and warm lately hasn't it?" _Weather, Sakura? Really?_ She viciously thought at herself.

Sasuke smirked, "The weather? That's the bet you've got?" At least the pills didn't blur his sharp eye for the uncomfortable.

"Sorry, it was either this or I commented on what a fine blue shirt you have on."

"In that case, yes, the weather has been nice lately." Sakura gave a smile equivalent to a round of applause him for being able to carry on the witty banter. "But I feel there's going to be rain later." Sasuke added with his neck craning to look up at the clear sky through her window.

"Always the positive one." She rolled her eyes playfully.

"Hn." Despite his stoic disposition it was evident to Sakura that the black haired boy was quite pleased with himself.

Then unfortunately that was about as much as they could stand to talk about the weather without a certified meteorologist present, so Sakura took another shot at shooting the breeze, "Where are you staying?"

"My old apartment."

"You kept it after all these years?"

"My landlady put the apartment in my name. Not that anyone wanted to move into it anyway, but still."

"Well, that was…extremely nice of her."

Sasuke shrugged, "She was always nice to me."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Every once in a while she'd bring dinner over and talk to me. She was an old widow and her daughter moved away so she was just lonely, I guess."

Sakura smiled at the thought of a teenage Sasuke eating dinner with a sweet, little old lady, "I'd like to meet her someday."

"Can't. She's dead."

"Huh?"

Sasuke nodded, "Been dead for a year now, apparently and she left the apartment to me in her will."

"Oh…that's too bad…about her being dead I mean. Not the fact that you got the apartment."

"Yeah, she was nice."

"And no ANBU members have to live with you?"

Sasuke shook his head, "Two did until about a month ago. I just had to agree to take stronger pills."

"Well, that's good. I'm happy to hear you're getting better."

The pale boy's head dropped into a jerky nod of appreciation.

"But I hope you understand why I can't quite sign that paper and forgive you."

Sasuke's light mood dimmed, "Of course not."

"Please, Sasuke, it's not that I can't forgive you it's just not yet, okay?"

Yet another jerky nod, "I understand."

"Thanks." She whispered weakly.

"I've got to go," he stood up and headed for the door.

"Um, okay," Sakura jumped up and power walked to head him off at the door, "It'd be nice if we could continue this conversation."

Sasuke made a noise in his throat to make what Sakura assumed to be a grunt of affirmation as he began walking down the path towards the street. The pink haired girl called out before she could stop herself, "Sasuke," he stopped, not turning around, "In the hospital…Why'd you let me go?"

"Because of what you said."

"Refresh my memory on exactly what that was."

Sasuke turned around, "How can you not remember?"

"Besides the point," she shook his question off, irritated at how easily he saw through her I-forgot-the-wording type inquiry and saw straight to her did-I-said-something bit.

"Fair peace becomes men, ferocious anger belongs to beasts," he sighed, seemingly too tired to go into a line of questions with her.

Before Sakura could even say _'what the hell?'_ he began to answer her question, "It's a quote of the Roman writer Ovid…my mother used to read me all the Greek and Roman stories, including his myths when I was young, and that was her favorite quote of his. When you said it…you sounded just like my mother."

Sakura looked down at her feet, "Oh…" Sasuke once again headed for the street. "Goodbye, Sasuke," she said before closing the door.

"Goodbye, Sakura."

He hadn't taken a single step into the street before a bead of water dropped from one of the darkening clouds above.

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><p><strong>AN: How was it. Please tell me in the reviews! By the way, I've figured I'll probably update on the weekends, it gives me enough time to read over the chapter a good amount of times and stuff. So expect Saturday and Sunday updates from me. **


	5. Lost Mother They're Calling

**A/N: Finally! A title from an A7X song! Big deal for lil' old me. Also, we've finally reached the supernatural aspect of the story **

Disclaimer: One word-Masashi Kishimoto. Consider Naruto disclaimed.

Chapter title taken from Eternal Rest by Avenged Sevenfold

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><p><span>Late At Night<span>

Mikoto sat on the edge of her youngest son's bed watching him sleep like she did every night since her death. After the massacre, her husband's spirit seemed to move on to the next life, but for some reason she couldn't. Something kept her tethered to Sasuke.

Ever since the night his innocence died she'd been with him. Mourning for him. Yearning for him to be able to let go of what happened and let go of her, but after 10 years she was beginning to wonder if that would ever happen. Although, he was really trying to better himself, she still felt the displaced rage radiating off of her son. His restless nights only seemed to get worse with the medication he was taking, with more tossing, turning, and talking in his sleep than ever.

She shut her eyes and felt herself fade away into her son's dreams as she did every night he was having a bad dream...so practically every night.

_Mikoto stands over the corpse of her older son. His blind eyes stare up at her and she slowly kneels down to close his eyes. Saying a prayer for him and kissing his forehead before she begins to make her way through the surreal world to find Sasuke._

_Averting her eyes all through her search as she comes across the severed heads, mangled bodies, and rivers of blood of the once green wilderness of Sasuke's mind. Although she'd seen _everything_her son had done since the night she died, nothing he'd actually done compared to the horrors created inside his head. In this world that his subconscious controlls he could kill Itachi a thousand times over every single night. And he just about did. _

_Moments in this place held the pain to fill a war torn millennium, and Mikoto was never sure how long it took her to find Sasuke in it, but sooner or later she always did._

_And this time she finds him by the red river as he drowns his brother in his own blood. The woman waits for her son to let the body slide into the river and float down with the current._

_"Sasuke-kun," she called to him from the shadow of the tree._

_He turns to look at her, immediately wiping the blood from his face and trying to wipe the blood onto his clothes, "Kaa-san! W-Why are you here?" His attempts to clean his face only smeared the red, and there is no water in this place to restore the white of his skin._

_"Here, Sasuke," she takes a step out of the tree's shadow with a benevolent smile, "Let me help you." He slowly approaches his mother, keeping his head down. Gently, Mikoto puts her porcelain hands on the sides of his face. _

_The grey of the sky gives way to a high white ceiling. The grass under their feet recedes into the ground, and the soft, blood-soaked dirt hardens to become wooden floor boards. Mikoto smiles as her hands had to reach lower and lower to stay on Sasuke's cheeks until he is no taller than her waist._

"_Oi, Kaa-san? Why are you holding my face?"She giggles at the high pitch of his voice and the slight muffling of his words due to the scrunching of his still chubby cheeks. She drops her hands to look at her son's fair, untainted skin before she says, "No reason, Sasuke-kun," she runs her hand through his hair as black as her own then ruffles it._

_"Kaa-san!" Sasuke whines as he re-messes up his hair more to his liking. She can't help but smile and kiss his cheek._

_"Go play with Itachi, I'm going to start on dinner, okay?"_

_"Okay!" He begins to go off, "See you later, Kaa-san."_

_"I love you, Sasuke!" she calls as he runs off to find his older brother._

Mikoto slyly brought herself out of the dream, or so she the thought before Sasuke jolted up in his bed. She followed him as he went into the bathroom to start washing his face. He checked the time and took a pill Dr. Tatsuya had given him for sleepless nights. Considering the first set of pills he takes during the day are what gave him the really bad sleepless nights to begin with, Mikoto wondered if this doctor had any idea what he was doing.

Sasuke stared at himself in the mirror for a moment to ruffle his hair, making some king of sense out of his current bed hair even though he knew he was about to lay back down anyway, just as he did. Soon he was back sleeping relatively soundly, still tossing and turning, but not enough for Mikoto to feel like she had to save him.

And truth be told, she usually didn't have the energy to do it more than once a night, so once again she sat at the edge of his bed. Listening to his breathing. Admiring how handsome he grew up. Imagining how proud Fugaku would be of how powerful his favorite son became. Aching to feel her hand run through his hair as black as her own in this world.

Tsunade's Office

The new Raikage had been inaugurated only a month ago and he was already raising hell and causing Tsunade a lot of late nights at the office such as this one. He cut his village off from trade with Fire Country and its protected nations, making all sorts of ridiculous demands for resource rich land of Fire Country before allowing trade to continue. To make matters worse, just as the Uchiha brat had said, the other five allied nations were staying the hell out of it. Not that she could blame them, she would stay the hell out of it if itwasn't aimed at directly at her. She wasn't sure what was worse: that fact Konoha would have to fight Kumo on its own or the fact everything was playing out exactly as Sasuke had predicted.

Either way she needed a drink. Nay. She needed multiple drinks. The Hokage bent down to look in her liquor drawer.

She had no more drinks. It had been a tough week. Even Shizune was feeling the pressure, which was probably why her assistant took the night off. _I guess I'm going shopping…_

Tsunade greeted the elderly owner of the local 24 hour grocery store, "Hello, Homare-san."

"Uh," he grunted to acknowledge her. Homare wasn't exactly the most talkative person out there. With hurried steps she made her way to the liquor section, put a lot of sake in her basket and began to make her way back to pay when something stopped her in her tracks.

Sasuke Uchiha stood in the produce section examining tomatoes. The blonde almost passed right by him to pay for her sake, but alas, she could not pass up the opportunity to mock him.

"You do all your shopping before the sun comes up?"

Sasuke kept his eyes on the tomato he was inspecting or bruises, "Late night sake run, Tsunade?"

"Touché," she shrugged before the black haired boy bagged his tomatoes and started to walk away, "I see those pills Dr. Tatsuya gave you haven't taken the rude ass out of you."

"Hn."

"Ever the answer," she sighed, "But honestly, do you always shop this late?"

"No, I just couldn't sleep tonight."

"Didn't Dr. Tatsuya give you—"

"Yes," he cut her off, "He did, but I'd rather not O.D. on Lunesta…and you? Drank all the sake dry I'm assuming. Why not just send Shizune?"

"She took the night off…this business with Kumo is taking its toll on her."

Sasuke turned to look straight at her with eyes that suddenly cared and smirked, "Really? That's _riveting_."

"This isn't going to turn into a negotiation of your sentence, Uchiha."

His smirk remained just as satisfied, "Hn." He picked up some milk, checked the expiration date and headed for the counter.

"I must say, Uchiha, you are a smart shopper."

"It helps that I've been doing it for myself since I was eight."

That kind of shut Tsunade up all the way to the cash register where Sasuke dropped the tomatoes and milk on the conveyor belt to have Homare scan them.

The old man put the tomatoes in the bag saying, "3.89," then the milk and said, "6.29."

"6. 29?" Sasuke lazily said, "It said 4.29 in front of the milk."

"Well, it was a mistake, allow me to rectify it," Homare retorted in a challenging tone.

Tsunade's eyes widened at how fast Sasuke's hand grabbed the milk jug and was about to tell the boy not to do anything stupid when the sound of coins clinking on the counter stopped her. He had paid the money. _What the fuck?_ This was exactly the type of stupid thing that would have set the kid off. Tsunade expected him to throw the milk at Homare's head or throttle the old man before he ever paid the money.

The boy grabbed the tomatoes and headed for the door in silence. Quickly Tsunade paid what she owed for the sake then raced out the door after him, but once on the street he was nowhere to be found. She couldn't even sense his retreating chakra. He was simply gone.

Two Weeks Later

It wasn't even ten minutes after Sakura got home from the hospital before she began making dinner for Sasuke. Ever since the first afternoon he came over he had been having dinner with her every night just to talk. Not that they were dating or anything like that, it was just them hanging out and talking as friends. Nothing more and certainly nothing less.

But Sakura would be lying if she were to say his visits weren't the high point of her days, now. She wasn't sure when or how it happened, but it did.

There was a knock on the door and she rushed to answer it after setting the steaks they were having on the table.

"Sa— " she caught herself because in front of her was not a stoic raven haired, onyx eyed man, but a smiling blonde haired boy looking down at her with eyes clear blue, "Naruto-kun," she tried so hard not to sound totally thrown off by his surprise appearance.

"Sakura-chan!" he yelled and embraced her in a hug, picking her up off the ground.

"Baka! Let go I can't breathe!" she shouted jokingly.

He kept hugging her, knowing full well she could breathe, saying, "You are ruining the moment." Before finally putting her down.

"It's good to see you, Naruto!" she tried to act normal.

"Not as good as it is to see you, Sakura-chan! It feels so good to be back in Konoha, people in the southern provinces are crazy as fuck! So what's been going on? When we got back to camp after the fight in the alley, we just found some new medic ninja saying he's your replacement because Gramma Tsunade called for you. I was like, what the hell?"

_How much does he know about the past six months?_ "Have you talked to Lady Tsunade yet?"

"Aa, and she sent me right here so you could catch me up," he said with a giddy, blissfully ignorant smile.

_Okay, for pawning this sucky job off on me: Tsunade score 1 - Sakura score 0. Good one…damn it._ "Okay, Naruto, something big happened while you guys were in the southern provinces…"

"How big? Good big?"

"Pretty big, and it sort of depends on how you look at it but," Sakura took a deep breath, "While you were gone…"

"Sakura?" she looked up and Naruto spun around to find Sasuke staring at them with his tired, forever night eyes.

"Sasuke?" the blonde haired boy exclaimed.

"You've invited the dobe tonight, I see."

Sakura almost face palmed at how terrible her luck was. _Great timing, Sasuke. Superb._ She awkwardly looked back and forth between them trying to figure out what to say.

"Hn, I'm going to wash my hands before we eat,'' Sasuke sighed before letting himself into the house and to the house and disappearing into the hall.

The kind haired girl turned back to Naruto with an uncomfortable smile, "You've probably got a ton of questions."

"Yeah, first, what the fuck is Sasuke doing here? And second how come you let him use your bathroom and not me?"

"He came back about six months ago—"

"Six months! And no one told me?"

"We thought it'd be best not to distract you, especially when execution was still on the table for discussion."

"Execution?"

"Yeah, but now Hokage-sama says execution isn't at all likely, just calm down, okay? Everything is kind of getting easier." She decided not to mention their first encounter in the hospital or anything regarding his mental state, "And as for the bathroom thing, he doesn't shit up the place for an hour after using it."

"Once! That was once!"

"Once and never again, Naruto, once and never again."

Naruto inhaled, "So I guess I'll leave you two alone."

"Why don't you have dinner with us?"

"I don't want to intrude on your date, I'm not down with third wheeling it."

"Woah, woah we are _not_ dating."

A skeptical blonde eyebrow arose, "Uh-huh…right," he smiled, "Sasuke'd probably kill me for being a cock block." His sentence was met with a thoroughly painful smack to the back of the head courtesy of Sakura Haruno.

"BAKA!"

"Ouch, Sakura-chan! Was that really necessary?"

"Hell yes, and don't ever say _that_ again!"

Naruto gave in and Sakura headed for her kitchen, "Aren't you going to come eat?"

"After you hit me, I don't know if I'd feel safe," he joked as he stepped into the kitchen, "But I can never pass up your cooking."

Sasuke was already getting plates out of the cabinet, ignoring Naruto shooting a look at Sakura as if to say _'he knows where your plates are?'_

"Are we eating?" a bored sounding voice called from the table.

"Aa," Sakura answered taking a seat at the table, "Here, Naruto, I got an extra cut out of the meat," she slid him a plate with the steak.

Sasuke was already eating when Naruto looked down at his plate, almost pouting, "Why does he have a bigger piece than me?"

"Did you seriously just ask that question?" Sasuke with a dead pan expression.

"Oh my God," Sakura face palmed. Why did she think this dinner could go off without a hitch? _Naruto! Baka! You just had to start something didn't you?_

"I just think it's a little unfair," Naruto said with a shrug, "You just waltz in here after five years and get the bigger steak than me, when I've stuck by Sakura for the whole time."

"Life's unfair," Sasuke's eyes were shut now like he was fighting off a migraine, "Accept it and stop acting like such a child, dobe."

Naruto jumped to his feet, "I'm the child? You're Mr. I'm-so-sad-and-lonely and I'm the child?"

Now Sasuke was on his feet too. Sakura could practically see the electricity crackling between their furious stares at each other. Once again she was helpless to stop her teammates from fighting. In fact almost nothing had changed since the day on the hospital rooftop. She was still too timid to get in the middle of them while they were like this. Naruto was still the loud mouth trying to be better than Sasuke who was still an arrogant ass. And now, just like that day, she could do nothing but watch their fight unfold.

She wondered how the fight would go with Sasuke's chakra being sealed, but she was sure he had something up his sleeve. The moments piled on, weighing down and intensifying the tension of the situation. The tick tock of the clock seemed to slow before…

"Come here!" Naruto practically jumped across the table at Sasuke.

"Gah! Get off of me you loser!"

Naruto was wrapping his arms and legs around Sasuke, hugging him, and kissing his cheek, "I missed you, you big teme!"

"For the love of Kami, get the fuck off of me!" the black haired boy cried as his pale hands tried to push Naruto away, but the blonde was completely unyielding in his mission to embrace the shit out of him.

Naruto stayed on for what felt like an eternity, not letting go until he was absolutely sure Sasuke's personal bubble had been thoroughly popped and then some.

"All it was, was some feelings. It wasn't that bad was it?" Naruto inquired giddily, poking fun at the now visibly irritated Uchiha, who, instead of answering, shot a murderous glance at him.

"It played out much worse in my head," Sakura giggled with relief that the two had not come to blows, "But I think Sasuke-kun felt pretty violated."

"Well what can ya expect? I missed you teme."

"Hn." Sasuke focused on eating his steak.

"So, Naruto," Sakura chimed, "fill me in on everything that happened after I left!"

~()~

Sakura had seen her visitors off about an hour ago and laid down on her bed, staring at the ceiling as she processed the events of the day. _Sasuke's face when Naruto jumped him was priceless!_ She giggled to herself. _Maybe things can go back to normal after all._

~()~

Mikoto faded back out of her son's mind after altering his dreams. Tonight it was particularly harder to untangle his thoughts and bring him to a happier place so she laid down next to her son, trying to touch his cheek. Feeling dismay in place of his skin as her fingers were forced to stop by a cruel thin barrier. It was as if plastic was between her hand and his face, she could feel him there, but not actually touch him. _What did I do to deserve this punishment?_ She thought as the frustration of not being able to touch her son grew steadily. All these years she yearned to just lay a single finger on her son and be able to actually feel him and not this cold unseen barricade. A tear fell from Mikoto's eye onto his pillow.

Slowly she felt herself dissolve from his room and she found herself standing in an unfamiliar bedroom with the pink haired girl, Sakura Haruno, asleep in front of her.

_Why am I here? How?_ It was the first time since she died she'd been in any place her youngest son wasn't. Her spirit could only follow him, or so she thought.

Mikoto noticed the unperturbed sleep of the young girl, and the older woman couldn't help, but be curious what gave the young girl that smile in her sleep. Summoning all her energy, Mikoto faded into the dream, luckily Sakura's mind wasn't as fortified as her own son's…

_Mikoto stands watching Sakura from afar in a meadow gazing up at the stars. She only dares to take a few tentative steps closer to see her son laying his head in the girl's lap and smiling as she speaks to him. _

_After a few minutes of their idle conversation Sakura lays down on her back and Sasuke sits up. Now, Mikoto notices here in Sakura's world Sasuke's black eyes held a concealed light in them just like they did when he was a little boy. Sasuke mounts the pink haired girl and begins to lay gentle kisses on her neck. Sakura moans and cranes her neck back, her eyes widening in shock at the sight of Mikoto. _

_The dream collapsed._

Sakura shot up in her bed with a shriek. Jerking her head around, she looked at Mikoto. Not in her general direction as so many had done for the past 10 years. She actually looked _at _her, and for the first time spoke _to_ her, "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

"You can see me?" she said in awe.

"Of course, you're standing right in front of me!"

Mikoto wanted to speak with her more, but before she knew it she was back in a dark apartment with her still sleeping son.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hehe…Inception type thing with a splish-splash of Ghost Whisperer, yeah?**


	6. Just Come Climb Up My Tree

**A/N: Fuck it...Here's one more for the weekend and here's to hoping ya'll enjoy and review!**

Disclaimer: As far as I know Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto not me…but please correct me if I'm mistaken.

Warnings: Minor sexual content and a not so subtle allusion to a particularly steamy, but lovable movie scene.

Chapter title taken from Pretend for the Weekend by CB7

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><p><span>Tsunade's Office<span>

The Next Day

"You've _never_ seen this woman before?"

"Not in my life," Sakura answered sternly.

Tsunade sighed, "Well, you're not hurt, so I think it'd just be best to put it behind you for now."

"Y-Yes," Sakura agreed. She knew the village was dealing with a lot of shit and didn't want to be a strain on the situation, but something about that woman gave Sakura a really bad feeling. Although she was sure she'd never seen the woman, she looked eerily familiar. The woman hardly looked like a kunoichi. More like a housewife. So how did she get in her apartment in the first place? The worst part was how the woman just vanished into air, it made Sakura worry she could reappear at any time just as easily.

Tsunade, as if sensing this, added, "If you're still upset by this, maybe you should stay over with a friend."

"Aa, sensei, I've got the perfect person in mind."

~()~

"No problem, billboard brow!" Ino shrieked, "Oh my God! This is going to be so much fun! Like consecutive sleepovers!"

"Sure, that's a good way of putting it." Sakura answered. The evening played out exactly like a junior high slumber party. First, they played Would You Rather…

"Jaraiya or Kakashi?"

"That's easy!"

"But! Kakashi's just been out training his ninja hounds and smells like a wet dog."

"Oh…erm…Jaraiya."

"EW!"

Then they danced and sang emotionally songs while standing on their bed…

"T-t-t-tongues! Always pressed to your cheek."

"Well my tongue is on the outside of some other girl's teeth!"

"You tell your boyfriend if he says he's got beef!"

"That I'm a vegetarian and I ain't fucking scared of him!"

And they finished with a nice movie viewing…

"Well if Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman are wrong then I don't want to be right!"

Yes, it played out exactly like a cliché junior high slumber party…except for when this happened…

"Kami, Shikamaru, what's the matter with you? Be a man and fuck me!"

"This is so troublesome…" And the banging began.

Sakura tried to cover her ears with the pillow but she could still hear them loud and clear…

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! "What's the matter, you're _already_ nutting?" "Urusee, Ino!" BANG! BANG! BANG! "Oooooh! Shikamaru you sexy beast!"

"Okay, that's about all I need to know about their relationship," Sakura muttered as she began to pack up her things.

"Ino, this isn't going to work out. I'll talk to you tomorrow!" Sakura yelled as she shut the door and pulled her rolling bag through the dark, empty streets of Konoha.

_Naruto? No, he and Hinata are probably asleep already. I can't just go knocking on their door. Kakashi-sensei? Shit, no he's on a mission._

_Tsunade-sama? No, she's got enough on her plate. And where the fuck does she live anyway?_

_Maybe I should just go back to my apartment? No other real option I suppose…_

"Sakura?"

She spun around to see the familiar, shadowy outline of none other than Sasuke Uchiha.

"What are you doing up?" he asked stepping into the light allowing Sakura to see he was carrying a bag of groceries. Never had a more strange sight reached her eyes. Similarly he noticed her rolling luggage and the look of displacement in her eyes, "Are you looking for a place to stay?" he asked after putting together the pieces of the puzzle before she could even answer his first question.

"Um…yeah."

"Why?"

Sakura answered, "Because last night there was this woman in my room…and it just sort of freaked me out."

"Hn," he began to walk away, "Good luck."

A bizarre sounding idea flew into her head, _Oh, Sakura, you are definitely going to regret this one_, "Sasuke," she thought carefully before truly committing, "could I maybe stay with you?"

Sasuke turned back around, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea."

"Just for one night, I swear. It's just too late for me to go knocking on any doors."

Sasuke seemed to consider this for a long while then shrugged, "Okay."

Sakura couldn't help the smile that came to her face, "Arigato, Sasuke-kun."

"Aa." He turned to begin heading for his apartment, and she ran to catch up to him.

"So were you grocery shopping all the way out here?"

Sasuke nodded.

"But you live on the other side of town. There's gotta be a grocery store closer to you, right?"

"I don't like their milk."

"Oh, I understand." _I guess…_

They went the rest of the way in silence. I t was kind of amazing that even after all the dinners they had together their conversations still had time set aside in the schedule for awkward silences.

"Here," he handed her a pillow and a blanket.

"Arigato again, Sasuke. I have no idea where I would've sleep tonight if I didn't run into you." She smiled up at him from the pull out bed of the couch in the Uchiha's living room.

"Hn," he replied trying to keep his black eyes open as he made his way back to his own bed in hopes of actually being able to sleep now.

"Goodnight, Sasuke," Sakura called, but his door was already shut.

The Next Morning

The onyx eyed boy awoke to the permeating smell of breakfast coming from the other room. He yawned as he threw on an undershirt and came out of his room.

"Good morning Sasuke, I hope you don't mind, I made some breakfast as a thank you for taking my sorry ass off the street last night."

He nodded, still in awe of the foreign sight of such a huge breakfast. Eggs, sunny side and scrambled, pancakes, bacon, hash browns, and fruit salad.

"You made all this?"

Sakura scoffed, "No, are you insane?" But then kind of regretted her word choice upon seeing a slight drop in Sasuke's expression, "I bought the fruit salad already made at the grocery store across the street, but don't worry I didn't buy any of their milk." She checked her watch, "Well, I gotta go, enjoy, and I'll find someone else to stay with tonight, so I'll be out of your hair." She waved goodbye and left.

~()~

"Yoshiko, you can_not_, leave me hanging here!"

Yoshiko Kita was Sakura's best friend at the hospital and her natural first choice for finding a place to stay after Ino fell out. She wore her light brown hair in a long braid and always adorned mascara to highlight her cyan eyes. Yoshiko was an accomplished healer like herself, but also a sensor so she got a lot more field work which Sakura assumed attributed to her free, open lifestyle.

"I'm sorry, but Takahiro and I are expecting company."

"Who the hell is Takahiro?"

"You don't know him? We've been living together since like…last night." Free and open lifestyle exhibit A.

Sakura face palmed, "And who are you expecting over?"

"My parents are visiting and bringing Kenshin."

"Oh God…Kenshin."

"Your leg has still yet to recover after the Great Leg Humping of '04, huh?"

"I don't know if it ever will," Sakura shook her head and rubbed her right calf.

Yoshiko snapped her fingers together, "Hey! Why don't you just stay with _your_ parents?"

"We're on better terms than when I moved out, but I'd rather not fuck that up by moving back in with them even for a night. I would never hear the end of it… 'So Sakura you finally decided to put your pride aside, huh?'" she mimicked her father, then her mother, "'It's alright even big girls need their mommies sometimes.' Ugh! I wouldn't be able to take it."

"I can understand that. When I moved out I told myself I'd never move back," Yoshiko sighed, "But what's wrong with just staying with Sasuke? Aren't you guys getting along again?"

Sakura shrugged and grunt, "Once again I'd rather not fuck that up by living with him."

"Fair enough," the brunette agreed with a laugh. That was another thing Sakura liked about Yoshiko, she unlike most people in the village didn't hold prejudice against Sasuke. It was just in her nature not to do so Sakura guessed. The cyan eyed woman seemed to have this faith in people and their ability to change while even some the people who once considered themselves Sasuke's friends advised Sakura against being around him.

"Well, sorry, I can't help you out, Sakura. I've got to go," Yoshiko said after she got a message on her pager, "Ciao, for now."

Sakura returned to Sasuke's apartment defeated. She begged eleven people after Yoshiko, and it was like none of them even wanted to give her the time of day. Apparently a rumor had spread that she and Sasuke were "romantically involved" and since everyone was trying to keep their distance from him she was included in that by extension. So there she sat on the rail outside his apartment waiting for him to come back to open the door for her.

"You're here," she heard his low voice say from behind her.

"Yeah," she dragged out the word not taking her eyes off the ground in front of her. Soon Sasuke stepped in front of her eyes, blotting out the grey floor with his navy blue shirt.

"No luck I assume." He stated more than asked.

Sakura only shook her head in response, "Sorry, Sasuke…I promise I'm trying to find another place to stay."

"Don't worry, you can just stay with me until you feel better about going home."

Sakura looked up and his sweat soaked face, "Are you sure?"

Sasuke shrugged, "I'm fine with it as long as you are."

The pinkette was shocked. _He's being so _"Nice—I mean—that's really nice of you. It'll just be for the weekend, okay?"

"Hn," he turned to unlock the door, having the large Uchiha fan on his back. _Is there some factory out there I don't know about where he buys those shirts in bulk?_ She wondered as she followed him into the house.

"So were you training today?"

"I train every day," he responded simply.

"And I thought the pills had all of your energy hostage."

The Uchiha lazily droned, "Dr. Tatsuya said exercise would help the medication level out."

"Is it helping?"

"It's not hurting."

The Next Day

The pink haired kunoichi returned from work late and after Sasuke that day and luckily he had left the door unlocked for her. She heard snoring and soon found that he had headed off to bed mildly early that night. _Well no wonder…he didn't get any sleep last night after all_. Sakura was woken up almost every hour by the Uchiha either getting up to pace or his sleep talking. She even felt that a scream of his made it past the walls of her own subconscious and rang into her own dream.

Unable to resist the opportunity and against her better judgment, Sakura tip toed into Sasuke's room to get a better look at him while sleeping. For lack of a better word, she was fascinated by this peaceful looking Sasuke.

"Sayonara, Kaa-san," he muttered in his sleep.

The jade eyed girl couldn't help, but smile. _Sounds like he's having a good dream_. She wondered what it could have been, but whatever it was he seemed to feel safe. _I wish he could find this kind of happiness while he was awake…_

"He can if you help him, Sakura," a strange feminine voice filled the room.

Sakura's green eyes shot up to see the same woman from three nights ago standing across the room from her. She wore a curious smile on her alabaster face and looked back at Sakura with gleaming black eyes. The rosette stood petrified as the woman slowly walked towards her. It was when the woman reached her hand out to touch her that Sakura finally found the sense to scream. Below her Sasuke shot up in bed, "Nani?" he shouted, still obviously tired, but alert.

Sakura spastically looked around the woman who seemed to disappear the moment Sasuke opened his eyes, "Sh-she was right here!"

"Who?" he asked, standing up to try to calm her down.

"That woman! The one who was in my house before! She was right fucking here! Kuso!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "You're fine. No one's here. Don't look so goddamn terrified."

"You don't believe me?"

"Just calm down, you had a long day."

"I'm not hallucinating if that's what you're implying."

The boy sighed, "I'm only implying that you should get some sleep," but upon seeing the reluctant and still shaken look in Sakura's eyes he added, "But if it makes you feel any better I'll take a look around the apartment."

She nodded.

"Wait here."

Sakura took a seat on the edge of Sasuke's bed, counting the seconds until he came back.

~()~

"No one," he announced once he came back into the room after fifteen minutes. Quite a long time to be looking around an apartment. _I know he doesn't believe me, but he actually looked…so, what does that mean? _

"Sasuke, I know I sound _insane_, but she was really here, okay?" Sasuke noted Sakura wincing again at her word choice. The raven haired boy nodded and crawled into bed, "Just try to get some sleep."

To his dismay, she didn't get off the edge of his bed, "I don't want to sound like a baby, but this has got me really freaked out. This woman just gives me a really bad feeling."

Sasuke groaned, "How come?"

"I have no idea. It's like I've seen her somewhere or somehow, but she's always smiling, and it just kind of throws me off because her smile seems so natural to her, but to me it's like it's out of place. What do you think that means?"

Sasuke shrugged and Sakura gave a disappointed sigh. The Uchiha wasn't sure why, but it affected him somehow and made him turn on his side to face her, "You're truly scared of this woman."

"I feel like I shouldn't be, but I am."

"Has she said anything to you?"

The pinkette nodded, "She knew my name." She decided to omit the other things the woman said.

"And then she just _vanished_?" Sasuke continued after the girl nodded, "Like a ghost?"

"I know, I know, it sounds absolutely ins—implausible."

To this the boy said nothing, only keeping his eyes staring at the empty space in front of him allowing a long silence to ensue before he offered weakly, "If you're still afraid you can stay with me here tonight."

"In your bed?" she asked, shocked.

"If you want."

"…yes…I'd like that," she mumbled, "A-arigato, Sasuke."

He scooted over as close as he could to the furthest edge of the bed, leaving a good amount of room between them, "Goodnight, Sasuke-kun."

"Get some sleep."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I hope everyone enjoyed the extremely c****liché ****slumber party with my little Black Swan reference, I wanted a pillow fight but when there's only two people it just doesn't work. You like? All reviews welcome and helpful suggestions are seriously encouraged!**

**P.S. Please feel free to comment on the songs I use for the chapter titles. I'm really trying to find the best possible song matches for each chapter. **


	7. If You Only Knew

**A/N: Ready? Sept. Go! …hehe see what I did there? Cause it's the seventh chapter and sept is like in French? But it sounds like set…okay bad French joke. And I don't even take French, so we're moving on…**

Disclaimer: Naruto? Yeah, not mine.

Chapter title from the Shinedown song of the same name.

* * *

><p><span>The Next Morning<span>

How well Sakura slept that night. When morning came and the sunshine shimmered through the window and onto her face, the pinkette felt completely ready for the day ahead. For a few minutes she sat idly in bed awake, but with eyes shut, savoring the silence before deciding to get up, but once she tried to do so she found a weight pressed on her.

She forced her green eyes open and gasped at the sight of a strong, pale arm stretched across her body and forming some kind of half embrace.

"Crap," she murmured, her breathing slightly constricted by his arm. It was the first time Sakura realized how rough his fingers felt on her skin. Deciding to try not to wake him she began to slowly lift his arm off of her and roll off of the bed; however, her nearly silent actions awoke the Uchiha anyway. He sat straight up and with his eyes still shut he asked, "What time is it?"

Sakura checked his clock radio and replied, "A bit past 7:30."

He nodded and got out of the bed to cross the hall into the bathroom. From the rattling sound, Sakura deduced he was taking his pills. Sakura waited for him to come out before crossing the hallway as well.

He stopped in the threshold, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she replied, half heartedly, "Thanks for putting up with my meltdown last night."

"Hn," he grunted with a shrug and began to pass her stopping when she asked, "Do you believe in ghosts, Sasuke?"

"So you really think this woman's a ghost?"

"I asked you a question first."

Heavily, Sasuke told her, "When I was a little boy my grandmother always told me stories about ghosts and how they could get attached to a human, either to haunt them or help them…"

_That wasn't an answer_, "So do you?"

"I think that these kinds of things could be walking nightmares and dreams, caused by stress or sleep depravation. Having the actual essence of a deceased person wander earth is a bit implausible…now, you answer my question. Do you think a ghost is haunting you?"

Sakura averted her eyes, "I've been afraid of ghosts ever since I was a little girl."

"So yes," he implied.

"If you saw this woman I'm sure you'd think so too."

"Maybe I would," he uttered walking away.Sakura went into the bathroom to take a shower so she could head off to work. While in the shower, she was left alone with nothing but her stray thoughts..._Why am I so set on this woman being a ghost? I must not be thinking straight...Just listen to Sasuke. The idea of ghosts is...'A bit implausible?' Well, that's kind of up in the air isn't it? Open to some interpretation..._A little interpretation later and she realized,_ Damn it Sasuke...that still isn't really an answer to my question._

A Few Hours Later

Dr. Tatsuya's Office

Tatsuya, a man of 51, sat in his arm chair facing his young patient, Sasuke Uchiha, who sat up on the couch.

"You know," the middle-aged man, "I encourage you to actually _lay_ on the couch. It'll help you unwind."

"No."

Tatsuya let out an exasperated breath, "After all this time we've spent together in these sessions, I still have no idea whether or not you're at all fond of me."

"I have nothing against you," his obsidian eyes jolted to meet the older man's brown ones, "It's only your duty to treat me like a psychopath."

"I never said you were a psychopath," Tatsuya defended.

"I never said you said it."

"Do _you_ think you're a psychopath?"

Sasuke shrugged, "You're the doctor."

"And as the doctor you want to know what I think?" he waited a split second for a response he knew as never going to come, "I think you're a good kid, Sasuke." The doctor ignored the teenager's scoff, "You chose Konoha instead of Kumo because you wanted the possibility of a future where you could stop killing. In Kumo they would have used you like a weapon of mass destruction, and, Sasuke, if you were a true psychopath you would have welcomed that opportunity."

The boy was silent.

"It's good that you want help, but that future you want isn't going to come with a fist full of pills, that's only a temporary fix. Do you really want to be able to restore your clan honorably?"

"Yes."

"Then your objective for this week is to try to make a meaningful connection with someone. I want you to find a way to express to them that you give a damn. Okay?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Good, I'll see you next week."

The Uchiha stood up and headed for the door.

"And Sasuke," the boy stopped at the threshold, "I'm proud of what you did for your friend, Sakura. Perhaps it would be best to start with expressing your feelings to her."

Coal eyes didn't spare him another glance.

Tatsuya smiled and shook his head thinking, _I wish he would admit just how bad he's got it for this girl._

Tsunade's Office

This did not look good. Tsunade stared at the envelope delivered to her earlier that day by a boy named Hosei Rokuro, the Raikage's emissary. The boy from the story Sasuke told her and the court over half a year ago. The envelop no doubt contained a declaration of war and Tsunade was just biding her time before opening it and making it official.

In the time she put off reading the message she thought seriously about how to get the information the Uchiha brat claimed to have without full forgiveness. _But damn it we've tried just about everything we can with that boy…Ibiki's totally out of torture techniques_.

A knock on the door.

"Come in," she shouted.

"Tsunade-sama," her pink haired student stood in her doorway, "You wanted to see me?"

"Oh, yes, sit down," she slid the envelope off her desk.

Sakura did so, "Is something wrong?"

"A lot of things are wrong right now, but in relation to you in particular…nothing is exactly _wrong_ per say."

"Um…okay, so what's this about?"

"I've received Intel saying you have moved in with Uchiha Sasuke, is that correct?"

"No! Sensei, I only took your advice and I'm just staying with him as a friend for a few nights before I feel better about going back home."

Tsunade took a deep breath, "Are you at all attracted to him?"

"What? No! We're just friends!" _Liar, liar, pants on fire..._

"You're getting pretty defensive about it."

Sakura scoffed, "Well, I get defensive when someone starts accusing me!"

"I'm not accusing you of anything, I'm only asking, just calm down."

Her student made a visible effort to do so, but was obviously still bothered.

"I don't know what's going on between you and Sasuke, not saying that anything is, but I know you Sakura. You want to believe everything can go back to normal, but the truth is he's been changed forever. I just feel as your shisou as well as someone who cares deeply about you, don't get attached to Sasuke."

"And why not?"

"You might get hurt."

"You think he'll hurt me?" Sakura didn't let her teacher interrupt her, "If you think he's so dangerous, why did you let him out of jail?"

Tsunade sighed, "Hear me out, okay? This war with Kumo is moments from becoming official, and the moment we accept the terms of war, I intend on having Sasuke's chakra unsealed and offering him forgiveness if he pledges his loyalty to Konoha. Eventually he'll be taken off medication and given full reign to attack the enemy however he sees fit. Now, Sakura, I don't think for even the slightest moment he'd ever attack you."

"Why not?"

Tsunade ignored her, "But I don't want your faith in him to cause you pain when you see whatever it is he may do. What you witnessed in the hospital was only a glimpse. He has the capacity to do horrible things."

Tsunade could tell her pupil was only half listening to what she was saying anyway, but she added, "Sakura, just don't get too attached."

"Hai, sensei," she remarked quickly, "May I go back to work now?"

The Hokage let out a deep breath and motioned for the younger girl to leave. _She'll wish she listened to me…_

~()~

"It sure feels good to hang out with you again, teme!" Naruto said through the slurps of his Ichiraku Ramen, "I actually really missed you being an asshole to me!"

Sasuke remained silent as he took his time and ate his ramen with dignity.

"So living with Sakura, huh? What's that all about?"

Sasuke scoffed, still holding his peace.

"I see," Naruto squinted and an adorable grin appeared on his face, "A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell."

A look of disgust crossed the pale face of the black haired boy, "We are not living together. She's only staying over for a few nights."

"Sure…" the blonde whispered skeptically, almost escaping Sasuke's notice.

"Don't treat this like academy gossip."

"Oh, I'm not. It's much more…mature than that."

"Dobe, I'm genuinely considering shoving my chopsticks in your ear."

Naruto held up his hands in surrender, "What Sasuke says, goes."

_Damn straight it does,_ Sasuke thought as he went back to eating.

The blonde let out a loud sigh, "Alls I'm saying is Tatsuya wants you to make a connection wi-"

"How do you knows what Tatsuya wants?" Sasuke's head snapped up, sending his raven hair in flying in all directions.

"Sometimes he tells me your little weekly objective so I can give you a little push…don't worry he doesn't tell me what you actually talk about. Doctor/Patient privilege, yeah?"

"Hn." _Doctor/Patient privilege my ass!_

"Anyway he told me you should start by trusting someone with something dear to you."

"He give any suggestions on how I should go about that?"

The Uzumaki shook his head, causing the Uchiha to rest his on his entwined fingers.

Naruto sported a mischievous smile, "But _I _have one."

Later That Night

Sasuke was sitting on the floor next to his bed with various boxes and pictures strewn across the room by the time Sakura came back to the apartment.

"What are you doing, Sasuke-kun?" she asked, standing in the doorway.

He took his sweet time in answering her, "Looking for something."

"You want some help?"

"Being left alone would help."

_Message received_. The pink haired girl thought while going into the kitchen. She made herself dinner and just as a small jab at Sasuke for him being borderline rude to her she decided to eat in front of the TV. It's not like he was totally against it, he just thought it wasn't dignified plus Sakura tended to leave some crumbs, so she did him a small kindness in sitting on the floor and not the couch. Although that was also undignified and also frowned upon, but whatever.

"Hehe…Stewie you so funny," she giggled to herself as she often did while watching TV alone.

"Sakura," the deep sound of the coal eyed boy signaled his approach and she could soon feel him standing a few feet behind her.

"Okay, it's either this or I'm sitting on the couch until I finish this Family Guy marathon."

"Sure, but I just—uh—want to talk to you about something."

Now she was interested, "Really? What is it?"

"Finish your program," he turned to leave.

"No, I've already seen them all."

"A couple seconds ago you were dead set on watching it."

She shrugged, "I was just using it as an excuse so you wouldn't nag me about eating on the living room floor…what do you what to talk about?"

"Well, I…erm…actually I wanted you to have something," he slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a raggedy brown box with an Uchiha crest drawn on the cover.

"Okay…" _…Where the hell is this going?_ She observed the large rise and fall of his chest before he said, "I want to give you this." He opened the box, revealing a shimmering necklace on a silver chain. At the center of the links was a small, onyx gem stone with the kanji for dignity written in jade. _Ironic..._

Sakura got right up onto her feet to take in the necklace's simple splendor at a better angle, "Oh my God…Sasuke, it's beautiful."

"It was my mother's favorite necklace. Apparently, her father left it to her after he died and she said she'd give it to me after she died, and so…here." He pushed it into her hands, "Naruto mentioned it was your birthday today."

"Wait are you sure you want to give _me_ this?"

"Aa."

"You don't want to save this and give it to your child like your mother did?"

"It makes no difference to me."

Sakura smiled sweetly, "Arigato, Sasuke-kun."

He nodded, "Hn."

She took the dainty necklace and asked, "Can you help me put it on?" She turned around and Sasuke closed the chain behind her head, and without thinking about it, rested his hands on her shoulders as they both looked at the necklace.

"It really is beautiful," she whispered.

"Hn."

"I'm sure she was too." Sakura looked up at him.

"You've never even seen her."

Sakura shrugged, "I can tell whoever owned this was beautiful."

"Well, you own it now."

"I guess so… What's your point?" she was caught off guard by his hand playing with the bottom of her hair, "Is that you trying to say I'm beautiful?" she affected the high pitched voice of the stereotypical girly schoolgirl.

"I don't know," his voice was sounding tired again, "I guess so…yes."

The girl just about froze, she felt her heart skip a beat, "What?" Sasuke's hands slid down from her shoulders to his sides. "I said you're beautiful," he whispered.

Sakura finally turned around, eyes wide, "Th-thank you, Sasuke-kun." He only nodded in reply. "uh…Sasuke, why are you being so nice to me?"

"Aren't I usually?"

"In relation to how you treat others, yeah, but this is like the universal standard of nice."

"Oh…okay."

Sakura raised a dubious eyebrow, "Is there something you'd like me to do now?"

"No." His eyebrows furrowed at the comment and he gave an almost spastic shake of his head.

"Alrighty then," she breathed out another thanks for the necklace and put her plate in the kitchen before resuming taking a seat next to Sasuke on the couch.

"Why did you assume I'd want something in return?"

"Huh?" she had barely even gotten a chance to sit down.

"It's normal to get gifts on your birthday. Why would I want something in return?"

Sakura sighed, "I didn't mean anything by it. I'm sorry if you got offended."

"But you did mean something."

"Okay…well, I still wasn't implying anything by-"

"Not on purpose, but there had to be some reason you said it so automatically."

She shrugged, "I guess it's just I expect you to be…past experiences have shown a—pattern of selfishness with you."

No response.

"But I really didn't mean anything by it, Sasuke. I don't want you to think I think you're still the same as you were before. I and any idiot that cares to look can see you've really changed."

Sakura heard a quiet hissing noise from the boy which sounded like he was trying to form the word thanks, making her smile, "You're welcome," she said letting him know she heard him and him taking her hand gently. He really did want to say thank you.

"OI! BILLBOARD BROW!"

_Oh my God…_Sakura jumped up, "It's Ino." _And the award for best moment destroyed goes to…_

"Why the fuck is she pounding on my door?" he was clearly irritated as she was at the moment ruined. He began to head towards the door to answer it.

"Don't worry," Sakura headed him off, "I'll get it." And she did.

"There you are Sakura-trick!"

"You really shouldn't have been banging on the door, Sasuke could get in trouble with his neighbors, you know."

Ino scoffed, "Che, no one in this village would _dare_ to complain about—Ohayo, Sasuke-kun! How are you this evening?" she flawlessly changed her tone upon noticing Sasuke only standing by the couch, "Anyway, have you seriously forgotten about the date we set for your birthday?"

Sakura slapped her palm on her own billboard brow, "Shit! I did!...I'm sorry, Ino, it was such a tough day today."

"What are you apologizing for the night is still young! We're meeting Hinata, TenTen and all the guys for drinks at like—now! So get on your game face, so we can get _shit _faced_._"

"Alright, alright, just let me grab my jacket and my wallet."

"Like hell! Leave your wallet, it's your birthday! Drinks on me…well, Shikamaru."

Sakura went to the closet and began looking for her jacket, "Go ahead and wait downstairs for me, Ino, I'll be right there." And like that the blond was gone. Sakura had her jacket in hand when Sasuke said, "Here take the key."

"Huh?"

"If you come back late."

"Or you could just come with us."

The raven haired boy's head spun around, "Huh?"

"You can come out with us."

"Ino didn't invite me."

"So? Ino may have set up the party, but it's my birthday and so I can invite whoever I damn well please…and I'm inviting you."

"Hn."

"No-Yes-No?" she said eyeing the painfully indecisive Uchiha, "I'm not gonna force you, but I'd really like it if you came. You can just get hammered and ignore us all, or hand me the keys and leave."

Sasuke stood up slowly, "Sure."

"Alright, let's go!" she said heading out the door with him following close behind, "Don't you want a jacket?"

"We'll be inside."

"It's always nice to be prepared though."

"Hn."

"Okie dokey," she sighed with a shrug.

Ino ogled at the tall, black haired boy following her best friend, "Oh…so you're coming along?"

He silently nodded his head.

"Um…okay then, let's head out."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Yeah, Sakura watches Family Guy. Next up…some drunken fun**


	8. SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS

**A/N: Finally! The final final exam is finally finished! Huzzah! So with summer comes a nice party chapter, it's almost as if I planned this or something...There Will Be Booze. **

Disclaimer: Mine is not Naruto.

Chapter title gotten from Shots by LMFAO; Lyrics from Vox Populi by 30 Seconds To Mars are included.

* * *

><p>When they arrived at the bar they were already about four shots behind everyone else.<p>

"Sssakura!" Naruto and ran clumsily over to hug her then looked over to the Uchiha, "Sssasuke!" he planted a wet kiss on his cheek making him look positively ill.

"Hinata, please control your baka!" Sakura shouted with a laugh.

"Sho-r-r-ry Shakur-ra! Nar-ruto-kun'z a bi-i-t wi-i-ild whens he'z dr-runk."

Sakura furrowed extremely confused eyebrows, "Nani?"

TenTen shook her head, "Hinata surpassed her point of no return about two drinks ago." Evidently Hinata was currently winning the drinking race with fourteen shots. Holy shit. So much alcohol for such a tiny girl. Sakura turned back to look at her teammates, the blonde one seriously irritating the black haired one.

"Teme, yousa rememver that hand shake we had."

"No."

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hand, "We did thisss thingy." He took a few tries with some aim issues, but he pulled his and Sasuke's fists into an awkward fist bump, "And then we'd hug like-" Sasuke dodged, sending Naruto tumbling to the ground in a fit of giggles.

"He really does not hold his alcohol well." Choji said with a shake of his head.

"If I were you I'd start drinking." Sakura whispered to Sasuke.

The raven haired boy sat at the end of the counter and asked the bartender, "I'm just going to have a cranberry juice."

"Not as big a drinker as your buddies, huh?"

He was about to give his simple answer of no before Naruto appeared at his side, "Pfffft! Did a-you really just order cran-a-berry juice?"

"Yeah."

"What is it?—your period?" the whole bar went silent, save for one "Oh, no he didn't…" from Ino. Now the whole bar was awaiting Sasuke response, which would have been smashing his glass against Naruto's head if he wasn't so damn drained, plus he didn't want to punish drunk Naruto for the stupid things he said. That could wait until he was sober.

"I will take a vodka, ssshop keep!" the bartender, obviously annoyed, slid him a shot of vodka, "Sankyuu! –you see, Sasuke? This is a _man_'s drink! That's why I, a man, am a-drinking it." He downed the drink, "Too legit, to quit! Dattebayo!"

"Damn, Sasuke's backing down to a challenge!...From Naruto!" Ino exclaimed.

_Damn it, Ino, please don't instigate_. Sakura thought.

"I guesssss I'm da top dog now!" Naruto chuckled almost sending him off his chair.

Sakura could practically see the gears spinning wildly in Sasuke's head so she wasn't entirely surprised when he raised his hand to get the bartender's attention, "Give me that." He was pointing at the bottle Naruto's shot had just been poured from. He hesitantly slid it to him.

Sasuke pulled out the cork and downed the entire thing, making more than a few jaws drop.

Naruto squinted his eyes, "It ssseemsss you've caught up…two shot glasses."

Now everyone was gathering around Sakura's teammates. _Oh, Kami help us all…_

Twenty minutes of sweaty, overindulgence in alcohol later.

"Juuusht ssshur-rendar, yooo basstuurd!"

"Ssshuuddafuuuckuup, looosher!"

"Good Kami, what the fuck are they saying?" Sakura asked.

"Imsa guuun-na beetchu!"

"Innayerrr drreeamshh!"

Ino shook her head, "It's sounds like their faces got stepped on by a horse."

With a few more drinks the bartender cut them off and they were forced to call it a tie.

"Maybe next ti-i-ime ya guys," Hinata said as Neji helped her guide Naruto out of the bar and Shikamaru helped Sakura with Sasuke.

"And by maybe next time," Sakura said, "We mean never again."

"Weeevgottuh f-hini-i-ishhh wuht westarded!" the drunken shinobi said simultaneously.

"Okay, what the fuck?

"Let's just tell them tomorrow when they're got massive hangovers," Ino suggested.

"Good plan."

After a few blocks Sakura and Sasuke parted ways from the rest of the group and a long, lumbering walk later they arrived at the door of Sasuke's apartment.

"Okay, we're here," she turned to her inebriated companion, "Where's the key?"

"It'sss rri-i-ight een heeer," he plunged his hand into his right pocket, "Errm…hoh-old a mo-oment." He checked the next pocket. Then both his butt pockets, and then his breast pocket. He did a once over again, then concluded, "Noh kee."

"What?"

"Noh…kee." He said slower as if she were stupid.

"No, I got _that_, but what do you mean no key?"

Sasuke answered, still speaking slowly, "Juhst tha-at. Noh. Kee."

"Sasuke, how the fuck are we going to get back in the house," she was answered only by his yawn and shrug, "Shit!...Okay, Sakura, think." _We can hardly go banging on the doors of our no doubt passed out by now friends at this hour. Not to mention Sasuke is in no condition to go traipsing around now…oh, perfect._ Her collected train of thought slowed when she noticed Sasuke had spread himself on the stone bench across from his door. _And down goes the Uchiha…Fuck! Okay options…I really should've asked Tsunade-sama where she lived considering last time. And god damn Kakashi-sensei's mission is turning out to be a real bitch time-wise. Yoshiko's got that stupid field mission she was going on about…what I'd give to be doing espionage in Lightning Country right about now. You never hear about people getting drunk and getting locked out of their tents!_ Sakura was shaken out of her thoughts by the shaking and shivering of Sasuke. Just then she realized how cold it was, luckily she had her jacket and that was why she hadn't noticed until now. For some reason the sight of a chilly Sasuke seemed so pitiful she was moved to take off her own coat and spreading it over him.

"No," Sasuke's voice shocked her. She thought he'd already passed out, "Tayk it bah-k. Ets too coold."

"I'll be fine." She went on and tried to think some more about what the hell they were going to do, but she only managed to go a minute before beginning to shiver. Black, dreary eyes opened upon the sound of her chattering teeth.

"Heeer tayk yer jackeht," he held the jacket towards her.

"No, no, you keep it, I'm fine." She lied and he knew it.

Sasuke sat up and slung the pink jacket around one shoulder, and spreading the other out like a bat wing, "Sitdown." She almost didn't, but she had drank some too that night and was started to get lightheaded and her eyelids heavy. She took a seat next to Sasuke who wrapped his arm around her, draping the coat around both of them. "Gud?"

She nodded with a yawn.

~()~

Sasuke could not at all get his mind to grasp what was happening. Ahead of him two closed doors blurred and danced around together, performing for him. His feet swung freely, and he felt a low vibration in his throat, while he heard the sound of humming. Several jumbled seconds of thought later, he realized the humming was him and words began to drown his brain _Here we are at the start. I can feel the beating of our hearts. Here we are at the start…Darkness falls. Here comes the rain. To wash away the past and our names. Darkness falls. Here comes the rain. To end it all. The blood and the game._

A soft snoring began to accompany the words in his head. The gratifying scent of a lovely, spring flower made its way to his nose and he leaned over sideways to let the smell calm and lull him to sleep…

"Oh my God!" a loud, high pitched voice hit about a 60 on the Richter scale of Sasuke's head and his eyes shot open. Apparently the noise had awoken Sakura as well and he found himself staring upwards at her wide open emerald orbs. "Sakura, what on earth are you doing?" this voice was lower so less piercing but goddamn it was it loud.

Sakura squinted as she pushed herself up to look at the man and woman gazing down at them in what seemed to be horror.

"Kaa-san! Tou-san!" Sakura jumped up so she could look just like a deer caught in the headlights, "W-what are you doing here?"

Sasuke, not ready to face any sort of noise right now, turned on his side to face away from the offending sounds.

"Parents can't visit their daughter on her 18th birthday?" the high pitched voice, assumed to be Sakura's mother, came again making Sasuke wince in pure agony.

"B-But that was yesterday."

"Oh, so the window of opportunity to visit our flesh and blood has closed, I see. Kaito, let's leave Sakura to her fornication on a public bench," her mother spat.

"No, no!" Sakura called, "I'm sorry. I—uh—you just caught me off guard here—I mean—how did you know I was staying here?"

"Yoshiko gave us the address, but she neglected to mention _why_ you weren't at your own home. I guess we know now."

"I'm sorry, I didn't tell you I was staying with someone, but it's only temporary. You see, I had an…intruder a few nights ago, and so I was pretty freaked out so I'm staying with a friend just until I get my wits about me." She nudged Sasuke's sleeping form, "Uh…I don't know if you've met him, but I know I've mentioned him a time or two."

"Ow! Nani?" he whispered harshly, no doubt trying not to agitate his own hangover, but he did a few seconds later get the message to stand up.

"Kaa-san, tou-san, this is my friend Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke these are my parents."

The two adults gazed awe-struck up into the obsidian eyes of her teammate and it seemed to take a great effort to keep their jaws tightly shut. Sasuke glanced over at Sakura as if to ask, _should I shake their hands or something?_ And Sakura quickly widened her eyes and raised both eyebrows as if to answer _How the hell should I know?_ "I remember where I had the key," the Uchiha said quietly to Sakura before bending down to get it out of the bottom of his shoe.

"Can I invite them in?" she whispered to him as he unlocked the door.

"Whatever."

"Kaa-san, Tou-san, would you like to come in for a while?"

They didn't answer instead they only followed into the apartment, keeping a very long radius from the black haired boy. Once they came to the center of the living room Sakura made a gesture telling them to take a seat and they did, very close to one another on the end of the couch closest the door as their daughter went into the kitchen. There Sasuke was drinking a glass of water and eating some bread with his back facing the living room.

"Can I get them something to eat?"

"You know, you don't have to ask me about this."

"I'm just making sure. I'm already occupying your house and getting you freakishly hammered because of my birthday party. I don't want you to think I'm not paying attention to any boundaries."

Sasuke shrugged, "Hn. I'm going back to bed." The Uchiha left the presence of his "guests" without a farewell or so much as a parting head nod. He felt their eyes on him until he rounded the corner and into the hall beyond their line of sight.

_Damn…_Inside his room, on the floor were still scattered the photographs and multitude of other things he'd displaced in his trying to find the necklace that Sakura was currently wearing in the other room. Under normal circumstances he would have cleaned up the tokens of his youth, but fuck it…he was too hung-over to give half a shit.

~()~

Miserably, Sakura looked at her parents glares of extreme disapproval, "So…have you turned my room into Kami shrine yet?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" her father, Kaito, asked in a low husky voice, obviously wanting to not be overheard.

"Trying to make pleasant conversation?"

"Very funny, young lady!" Her mother, Ishi, cut in equally as quiet, "What point are you trying to prove to us now by moving in with—with _him_!" she hissed out the final word.

"Okay, I reiterate, I am not living with him. I told you it's temporary. _Extremely_ temporary. I will be going back home sometime this week, honestly."

Kaito scoffed, "You say that now, but wait until that boy gets—" Ishi poked her husband's arm hard with her elbow making him jump with a small yelp.

"Sakura, please, we get the message your sending here."

"You do? Cause I wasn't aware I was sending—"

"You can do whatever you want, and we can't stop you because you're an individual...or something along those lines, yes?"

"Well, sure, but that's really not—"

"You're a woman now, eighteen years old, yay!" she awkwardly wove just her forearms in the air, "But you need to be smart here, honey. Don't be so concerned with spiting us that you get involved in something like this."

"Like what?"

"You know what! That _boy_, that Uchiha Sasuke!" her father erupted back into the conversation, "We may not be shinobi, but we know all about that little creep!"

"I've known him since the academy, Tou-san, I know him more than any rumors do."

"Let's please not get into that whole there's-good-in-everyone nonsense," Ishi rolled her eyes.

"It's not nonsense! If you just held off judging people until—"

Ishi interrupted her, "It is nonsense! Some people are just bad, and by Kami, that Uchiha Sasuke is one of them. Now, come on," she stood up and took hold of Sakura's wrist, "Let's all get out of this place before he decides to murder us!" she whispered.

"No, wait, just listen to me for—"

"Sakura, we can talk about this later, but right now this is not a discussion! You're coming with us back to the house, unfortunately you room is a Kami shrine at the moment, but you can stay in the—"

"Yamate!" Sakura bellowed as she snatched her wrist back from her mother, "I'm not some little girl! I can make my own decisions, so you're right, Kaa-san, this really _isn't_ a discussion, because I don't need any sort of approval from you on what I do with my life and from this point on I couldn't give half a fucking shit what you think!"

Her mother stood stunned and still as a statue, with her mouth gaping not only at the vulgarity of her daughter's statement, but the content.

"Come on, Kaito," she said after getting her wits about her, "Let's get out of this pit of hell before it starts to burn." Sakura, still steaming, showed her parents to the door slamming it effectively as soon as her father's foot crossed the threshold.

Her father stopped outside the door and turned to yell, "You've brainwashed my little girl, I hope you're happy, you freak!" Sakura realized he was shouting at Sasuke's bedroom window.

No matter how hard she tried. _It's always like this. We get on good terms, and then we actually talk and every reason I hated them in the first place just floods back…FUCK!_ But God it felt good. Pissing them off. It was like their anger gave her power, and now she needed something that would really piss them off.

Before she realized it she had stormed into Sasuke's room.

* * *

><p><strong>AR (Author's Rant): For the record, yes, Sakura's mother is based on someone I know and am frequently forced to come into contact with. Interestingly enough, I've posted this chapter right before the summer when I will have to see this person, was my timing perfect or what? As the great Light Yagami would say: JUST AS PLANNED. So yeah, joy to the motherfucking world. But I digress…**

**Legit A/N: Sorry bout that little tirade there^ So, ANYWAY, what'd you think about chapter 8? Reviews?**


	9. It Could Be Just Like Heaven

**A/N: Why hello there… **

Warnings: Sex scene(s) and mild violence. (Please consider the fact that the first movie I remember watching was Gladiator when I was about six years old so my POV on the subject of What Is Graphic Violence may differ from most, but honestly I don't think it's _that_ bad)

Disclaimer: Naruto is only mine in my mind…so that's irrelevant, isn't it?

Chapter title taken from The Fantasy by 30 Seconds to Mars

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><p><em>God it felt good. Pissing them off. It was like their anger gave her power, and now she needed something that would really piss them off.<em>

_Before she realized it she had stormed into Sasuke's room…_

"Nani, Saku—" he never got a chance to finish that sentence. Sakura had jumped on top of him. Her open lips and tongue stuck to his like a flag pole on a cold day. _What am I doing? _Admittedly, finally being able to express her physical desires and all the while get back at her parents felt awesome, but she thought this was going a tad too far. It was like whatever cord connected her mind to her actions had been ripped out. _Stop! Freeze! For the love of Kami, Yamate!_ But her body didn't have a vocabulary and if it did, stop sure as hell was not in it, nor was stop a setting on the mindless machine that was herself right now. It had one and one setting only: Fuck.

_Sasuke won't let me hug him, so logically it's only a matter of time before he pushes me off…right? _The Uchiha flipped them over and began to stare down into her green eyes as if hearing her internal pleads and struggle. _There we go…he's got it under control._ The male straightened his back and, still straddling Sakura, began to unbutton his pants. _Wh-wha-what is he doing?_

Sakura felt her hands pulling down her own pants and then go underneath Sasuke's shirt to pull him back down to connect with his lips. And he didn't fight her at all. _SHIT! This is Uchiha Sasuke! Mr. Arms-distance-length-away, what the hell is he doing? This doesn't make any fucking sense! _But there was no sense, reasoning, or logical thought to be had here, only feral desire and sensation.

Soon she was screaming his name as he pounded himself into her, making the room boom with each thrust. An abrupt growl sprang from Sasuke's lips, making Sakura realize she was digging her finger nails into his back and she flattened them so only the pads of her digits touched his back.

"Don't," Sasuke's voice had a new sort of coarseness to it, "Keep doing it."

Sakura didn't question it, because digging her fingernails into his back helped her channel the slight pain caused by his zealous thrusts. With one more shove of himself into her, her cunt clenched and milked his cock. Sakura half expected Sasuke to get up and make himself a sandwich, but instead he rested his head on the crook of her neck, breathing heavily, but tranquil as she'd ever seen him awake.

It took a few minutes of laying there to become fully aware of the shit that just went down. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed pushing him off of her, "What the hell did I just do?"

"Me," he replied cleverly. Good to know intercourse did wonders for his sense of humor.

The pink haired kunoichi pressed the palms of her hands to her eyes, "I can't believe I just threw away my virginity like that." She seemed to be talking more to herself than him. In fact, they were almost having their own individual conversations.

"_That_ was your first time? Could've fooled me."

"I really thought you were going to throw me off!"

"I really could go for a sandwich."

"And we didn't use a condom! What if I get pregnant?"

"And maybe extra tomato," he got out of the bed.

Sakura stayed in a daze for a few seconds before pulling up her pants and chasing him into the kitchen, "Wait, Sasuke, this is serious, what if I get pregnant?"

Sasuke sighed, "When was your last period?"

"_Excuse_ me?"

"Just tell me."

The girl counted the days in her head then blushed, "About three and a half weeks ago."

"You're not ovulating, we should be fine."

"You're sure?" He nodded. "How do you know?"

Sasuke shrugged, "I traveled for a while with a female who tended to share more than I cared to know…and why don't _you_ know?" With that he concluded that branch of conversation and turned around to begin making a sandwich. He sat at the kitchen table across from where Sakura took her own seat.

"Aren't you hungry?"

"No," she replied timidly, "I'm fine."

Onyx eyes surveyed the rosette and he slid the half of his sandwich still on the plate over to her, "Eat."

"Really, I'm okay," her attempt to lie was thwarted by her stomach's growl.

Sasuke exhibited a vindicated smirk, but despite the fact the he was right about her being hungry she still slid the plate back to him, "I'll make myself something later."

He shrugged, "Okay."

Once he had finished his food Sakura found the courage to speak up again, "W-was that your first time too?"

He shook his head as his only reply. It seemed the chatty side effect of sex had worn off and stoic, subdued Sasuke was back.

"Is it overstepping my boundaries if I ask when it was?"

"Yeah, it is." He spat, thoroughly silencing and slightly embarrassing Sakura.

"Gomen," she whispered, feeling tiny.

Sasuke stood up and went into his room without a single word. Leaving a very small Sakura behind to clean the dishes. As she stood she suddenly felt a pain right between her legs accompanied by a growing red signal that her purity had just been lost.

~()~

That night Sasuke didn't dream of slaughtering his brother over and over again. Instead the memory of his first time came to haunt him and disturb the spirit of his mother all over again…

_Sasuke leaves the training room with the blood of the first man he'd ever killed staining his clothes. It wasn't supposed to be like this. The only man whose life was supposed to be ended by his blade was Itachi's. This other man Sasuke had no quarrel with. He was no one to him. He was nothing. _

_The Uchiha feels sickened by his entire existence. Betrayed by the body and the reflexes he had strove to hone over the years. Feeling so unsafe in his own skin, he shuts his eyes to prevent receiving false images from his possibly corrupted eyes. He finds his way to his room from memory, despite realizing how foolish it is to assume his mind hadn't turned on him just like his body already had. He rushes into his living quarters in the bowels of the hideout and begins to tear the crimson coated clothes from his body and takes a shower to wash off any blood that seeped through and attempts to unwind. There's a knock on the door and Sasuke steps out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist he answers the door to find his mentor standing before him._

_The boy's mood immediately turns far more foul and his teacher instantly senses it, "Oh, Sasuke-kun, I know how disappointed you must be with how this day turned out."_

_"I know you told that man to try to attack me while I was training."_

_"Such accusations. Tut, tut…Why ever would I do that?"_

_"So I'd stab him before I even realized it."_

_His sensei sighs, "There really is no use in trying to fool you, not when your eye is almost as skilled as Itachi's…Almost. Not quite." _

"_Fuck you, Orochimaru."_

_"Watch the way you speak to Lord Orochimaru," Sasuke realizes Kabuto is standing off to the side out of his sight perhaps a few paces down the hall. _

_Sasuke snarls, "Why don't you step out here where I can see you, you little coward?"_

_"I don't take orders from you."_

_Orochimaru smiles, "Why don't you step out here though, Kabuto, while we're on the subject."_

_"Yes, sir," he answers with hint of mischief. Once he steps into Sasuke's sight he sees Kabuto is holding a bound and gagged girl with him._

_"I recognize now," Orochimaru hisses, "That it was too soon to wash the weakness of Konoha from you. Allow me to make it up to you." He grabs the girl and makes his way past his student to shove the girl onto the floor making her yelp in pain. "Here's something I dug up. She's still clean." He says simply as he exits the room, "Let go of some of that…frustration." Sasuke slams the door shut and glances over to the girl whose blindfold is drenched in tears. She has bleach blonde hair that obviously hadn't been washed in weeks. He kneels beside her and removes the blindfold, wincing as her eyes fill with terror at the very sight of him, "Oh God!"_

_"Where did they take you from?"_

_"K-Konoha. B-but I'm j-just a civilian. I'm no threat to you at all! I j-just w-work—"_

_"Shut up," his hand is around her throat before either of them even knows it. "Do you know who I am?"_

_She nods. Her eyes catch sight of the bloodied clothes in the corner evoking her sobs begin again, "Oh God, please don't kill me."_

_"What do they say about me in the village?"_

_"The rumors say t-terrible things, b-but I don't think they're true! I d-don't really pay any attention—" her air is cut off by Sasuke lifting her from the floor and throwing her by her neck onto the bed._

_"What do they say?" he demands. Her evasion of the question made him frustrated, despite how much he didn't want to prove Orochimaru right._

_"W-what the gossips say doesn't matter, they're just bored with their own lives! You shouldn't care about what they talk—"_

_His frustration turns to pure anger and he lets out a annoyed howl, "Just tell me what they fucking say!" Jumping onto the bed to straddle her and press his body weight against her. His face dangerously close to hers._

_The girl wails out in terror, "They say you're more of a monster than a man!"_

_Electricity fills the room and there is no more soul behind onyx eyes. Only rage. He bites her neck and rips a rough patch of skin from it, "Well, if that's what they fucking say!" he hollers wildly._

_"Please, please, stop! God, help me!"_

_"Shut up!" he slaps her brutally and begins choking her, "Just shut up!" He lets go of her neck just before she loses consciousness. He wants her to see him for every second of what's about to happen. His towel had already fallen off and now he begins to tear the rag of cloth Orochimaru had left her in. The curse mark begins to envelope his body and he leaves long claw marks along her once smooth skin. _

_She screams at the sudden change in his appearance, "Oh my God! They were right!"_

_His now red eyes gaze menacingly at her while drool falls from his smiling mouth as if he knows exactly how much pain she is about to be in, and it arouses him. He drives himself into her over and over and over…Not even realizing that in the process he was killing her. His jagged claws lodged themselves in her back drawing out more blood than she could survive without. After reaching his climax, he falls asleep…Awaking next to the mangled body of the girl. Horrified, he leaps from the bed and pushes himself against the wall furthest from the corpse before he vomits. Her bleach blonde hair drenched in her own blood._

Sasuke shot up out of his midday nap covered in sweat and sobbing. He was so disgusted with himself that he didn't know what to do, so he did what came naturally: Destroy. He shot electricity all around the room. Charring the walls and breaking the windows. His fury was unyielding even to the seal that was controlling his chakra. He clenched his head as tightly as he could as if trying to force his mind back together again, but to no avail. All he could stand to do was cause utter chaos to his surroundings. Screaming curses at himself as he did so.

Soon his screams were joined by another, immediately bringing his sanity back to him and he looked over to find Sakura nursing a badly burned leg.

"Kami, what the fuck was that?" she cried at him accusingly. He cursed himself once more and jumped out of the bed and tried to pick her up to rest her on the bed. "No, no, I'm fine. Just let me heal this, okay?"

He nodded silently and slightly ashamed of himself as he begun to assess the damage he had done to his room. It was almost completely blackened, darker than his hair and making him feel like a ghost as pale as he was amidst it. Sakura managed to heal her leg, but remained on the floor so he imagined it still hurt a little bit.

"I-I didn't mean to," he whispered falling to his knees in front of her. Not able to meet her gaze, instead he kept his eyes on a spot left unburned on the carpet.

"Could you tell me what the hell that was about, Sasuke?"

"Bad dream."

Sakura's eyes widened, "A bad dream? All _this_ for a bad dream?"

"A particularly bad dream."

"Well," she sighed, "What was it about? Your brother?"

"No."

"Your clan?"

He only shook his head.

"Your parents?" She was met with the same response, "You've got to tell me something. I think I should know why my leg is fried and why you practically destroyed your own bedroom…Well? What was the dream? The boogeyman? Monster in your closet?"

"It was…a memory," he took a deep breath about it, "You remember earlier today—you asked me about my first time. It was uh—about that."

Sakura gave a small giggle, "Was it really that bad? What, you couldn't get it up?" Her lightheartedness was darkened by Sasuke's onyx glare and she immediately apologized for the jest, now sensing how solemn this was. "I didn't mean to make fun, I was just trying to lighten the situation…stupid idea I guess."

"Not as stupid as telling you would be."

"Please, Sasuke, give me another chance. I want to know what's going on here. Just trust me, okay?"

He seemed to mull over this for a while before finally saying, "It was while I was training with Orochimaru, about four years ago."

_So he would have been about 15…_

"I had just killed a man for the first time," Sasuke continued cautiously upon noticing the slight dip in Saskura's expression, "Orochimaru had arranged it so I would kill the man right after I'd confided in him that I didn't want to kill anybody but Itachi. He told me, 'Don't worry, boy, because soon you'll get a taste for it.' …Fuck! I should've known right there what he was going to do," he pressed his palm against his forehead, "After I killed the man and went back to my room, Orochimaru brought a girl there…to prove his point."

"Y-you killed her," Sakura saved him the trouble of having to say it himself.

He nodded.

_Wait, but it was also his first time so..._"You _raped _her."

"I lost my mind for a few minutes and I completely dehumanized her."

The pinkette was practically shaking with fear now. If it wasn't for her leg she would have run out of the apartment right there, but now there was absolutely no escape. _What if he goes crazy and lights up the room again?...Well then I'm fucked. _

"Please," he leaned forward to rest his head on her thigh gently, "Don't look at me like that…That's exactly how she looked at me."

"L-Like what?"

"Don't look so terrified."

Suddenly so many things were beginning to make sense to her.

Right before he lost it in the hospital room_…Don't look so terrified, Sakura…_

And the first time he showed up at her door…_ Relax, Sakura, don't look so god damn terrified..._

_I'm really trying, okay? You think I want to be like this for the rest of my life? You think I enjoy being a fucking monster? I don't! I'm talking to the damn shrink. I'm doing the treatments. I'm taking the fucking pills…And it doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere because you're still scared!_

Sakura ran a hand through his jet black hair, "I'm not scared of you, okay?"

He hugged her leg tighter, as if he let her go she'd fade away, "Why should I believe that?"

"Because you're not a monster." He turned so his body faced away from her, enough to tell Sakura he still didn't buy it. "A monster wouldn't care about who he's hurt, but you obviously do because you came back to get help…You're actually guilty about what you did to that girl and you don't want to do it to anyone ever again." He remained silent and Sakura continued with a sigh, "I wish you had as much faith in yourself as I do."

No answer. For almost an hour they sat there in silence. Sakura rested her leg to allow it to heal some more, all the while idly caressing Sasuke's half-conscious form. Eventually Sasuke lifted himself from her embrace, keeping his eyes on the floor. She could just barely trace the track tears had taken from his eyes down his face.

Slowly his glassy eyes met hers, "Thank you." Sakura had seen a lot of things in Sasuke's eyes. The detachedness that she'd adored in them as a child. His hatred that grew out the madness that worried her. Fear. Rage. Confusion. Frustration. Even genuine concern she'd seen in those eyes once or twice. But never in all the years that she'd looked into those black pools had she known them to betray his sorrow. She knew he had to have been sad his more than fair share of times in his life, but she also knew he considered himself damned if he ever showed it to anyone.

"Thank you for trusting me." She replied with a smile.

"What?"

"I know it's not easy for you to be emotional in front of people, so I'm glad you can trust me enough."

"Hn," he grunted with a slight turn of his head, obviously realizing his attempt to hide the fact he practically just cried in her arms was in vain. The pink haired girl giggled at how much of a child he resembled and leaned forward to give him a hug. At first his muscles tensed at contact, but soon he relaxed even wrapping his arms around her to hug him back.

Sakura's eyes began to drift from his dark hair to the Uchiha fan on his back and eventually all the way to the floor where she spotted something that brought the moment to a pre-mature end.

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><p><strong>AN: Eh...I'm not sure how I feel about this one, there was a lot of editting time spent on it, and I'm content with it but you know...I figured fuck it, I may as well upload the son of a bitch and see what the reviews say...so say!**


	10. My Mouth Kept Moving & My Mind Went Dead

**A/N: I don't think I have anything to say, but enjoy the chapter. Weird, huh?**

Disclaimer: If someone's selling Naruto tell me, okay? Cause I sure don't own it.

Chapter title taken from Waiting for the End by Linkin Park

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><p><em>She leaned forward to give him a hug. At first his muscles tensed at contact, but soon he relaxed even wrapping his arms around her to hug him back.<em>

_Sakura's eyes began to drift from his dark hair to the Uchiha fan on his back and eventually all the way to the floor where she spotted something that brought the moment to a pre-mature end... _

~()~

A wave of clam rushed over him as soon as Sakura hugged him. It was so calm in fact, he couldn't help but desire more. Feeding his craving he admittedly took small advantage of the situation by letting his fingers creep and caress a little lower than the designated platonic zone of her slim figure.

She quickly pulled herself away from Sasuke whose concern as to why she suddenly looked frightened again was evident in his wide eyes, "What's wrong? Did I do something?" _Oh fuck, I definitely crossed the line there, but hell, she initiated sex with me just this morning! Why should I be ashamed?...right?_ He put his hand on hers, "I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable…" _Oh God, there it is again…that look of fear._

"You didn't do anything," she picked something up off the floor and stood up, he soon followed. Her emerald eyes wide with confusion and fear.

"What's wrong?" He tried to keep his voice even, but frustration was apparent.

"Th-this woman," Sakura whispered, "Who is she?" She tilted the paper so Sasuke could see it was actually a picture, _Shit, I still didn't put them away from when I was looking for the necklace…So many must have gotten burned._ He couldn't dwell on the upsetting thought for long because he soon realized Sakura was holding a slightly singed photograph of…

"That's my mother," he replied and winced again at the further widening of Sakura's eyes and her silence that extended over several painful moments, "What's wrong?" He couldn't mask his frustration any longer. That fear was weighing down hard on him.

"This is the woman I've…been seeing."

"What?"

"The reason I've been staying here!"

Sasuke blinked several times quickly, "The…ghost?" He scoffed out the last word.

She nodded.

He let out a cruel laugh as if mocking her, "Right, Sakura, she's haunting you! _My_ mother has come back from the dead to haunt _you!_"

"Maybe she wants me to tell you something, and I know it sounds kind of—"

"Insane? Yeah, I'd say so!...How dare you talk about my family?" He snatched the picture away from her and put it in his pocket, "I could kill you for mentioning my mother." He mumbled to himself though he was sure Sakura had heard.

The pink haired kunoichi, taken aback, tried to relax the tension, "I don't know why, but I do know your mother is the woman that I keep seeing. If you'd just calm down and listen for a second, maybe we could try to figure some of this out or even—"

"God! Do you ever shut up?" He took her by the shoulders, shaking her a little, "I don't want to think about it, okay? I want to forget you ever mentioned it!"

"Jesus fucking Christ, Sasuke, are you so tremendously fucked up that you don't even want to remember your family?" Her poise didn't falter, "You're just killing them all over again by forgetting them!...Oh, yeah! You're definitely his little brother, Itachi'd be proud!" She immediately bit her malicious tongue as soon as the wicked words passed her lips. Swiftly Sasuke shoved her to the ground outside of his room like a ragdoll.

"Get out." She didn't quite know why the calmness in the raven haired boy's voice scared her more than anything he'd ever done before.

"Sasuke, I'm so sorry! I didn't even realize what I was saying until it was—"

"Urusee," he interrupted, "Just shut up and get out."

His tone forbade her from saying anymore let alone trying to explain herself to him. Hastily she got up and ran with the slightest limp out of the apartment building. Only stopping once she made it down the street because of the sound of crackling electricity coming from behind. Once she turned she was disturbed by the untamed lightning coming from Sasuke's second story apartment. Sakura immediately knew why she'd been scared of his even tone before. It was only the calm before the storm. She turned to run though where exactly she was going she wasn't sure. The only clear thought in her head was that Sasuke had saved her life by telling her to get out of his apartment.

The Next Morning

The Hokage's Office

"What the hell do you mean the seal broke? How?"

It was evident that the ANBU was just as disturbed and confused as she was even behind his mask, "I don't know how, Hokage-sama, but it just did."

"Was anyone injured?"

"No, ma'am, the boy remained inside his apartment but eventually passed out at the strain of drawing his chakra out past the seal. The place is a total wasteland, the kid destroyed everything in sight."

"Where is he now?"

"We've got him drugged in a cell."

"No sign of Sakura?"

He shook his head, "Don't worry, she wasn't in the house at the time." _But that's where she's staying and it was way too late for her to still be out._

The Hokage considered this, "Put some chakra handcuffs on him, let the drugs wear off, and get Tatsuya down there. ASAP."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

_What the hell made him snap? And why wasn't Sakura there to stop it?…unless…She caused it._

A Few Hours Later

Sasuke's Cell

Tatsuya stood behind the bars, looking across the barren room at his young patient. The chakra suppressing handcuffs and foot restraints were accompanied by extra chains rashly bound around his body. Confining him to the one position he was currently in of sitting against the wall.

"Are you feeling better, Sasuke?"

The boy gave no reply or any indication he actually heard the older man.

Tatsuya thought out every word he spoke meticulously, "Do you want to talk about it?...What happened last night?"

Silence.

"You were obviously...distraught," he sighed, idly flipping through his notes, "Did it have something to do with Sakura?"

After a few moments with no reply the doctor continued, "They found her just a few hours ago staying at her friend, Yamanaka Ino's home. She claimed you two had a falling out."

"We did." He grunted.

"So he speaks," the doctor exclaimed, feigning astonishment, "What was this so-called falling out over?"

"She made an offhand comment about me and my family. I found it distasteful."

"So you torched your entire apartment?"

"I found it extremely distasteful."

Meanwhile

"You said WHAT?"

"I told you I wasn't one of my better moments," she winced in preparation for the inevitable scorns of her teacher.

"Not one of your better moments? That is perhaps the last so incredibly dreadful thing to say to anyone!" Tsunade bellowed, "You sent the kid off the fucking deep end!"

"Gomensai, Hokage-sama," Sakura replied, "I won't try to justify my actions."

The Hokage sighed, "Well, good I guess, makes my job of scolding you a bit easier…but what the hell are we going to go about this, huh? I mean, no way is the court going to let me unseal his chakra, and that means we won't get the information he has and we lose him as a soldier."

Sakura remained silent.

"In fact…they'll probably call for execution."

"What? No! Tsunade-sama, you can't let them do that!"

"I won't be able to stop them. I don't think one of those old fools would side with me and they only need a 2/3 vote to overrule me."

"Tell them it was my fault! I practically forced him to lose it after what I said. No less could be expected from someone in his condition."

"Their not big on the empathy, Sakura. The fact that we went totally fucking insane over some words is only going to work against him. As soon as they see that apartment there's no way they'll stand to let him live. The place is obliterated. He did an impossible amount of damage to it considering his chakra was sealed. They could go for execution under the grounds that he's just too dangerous to be kept alive."

Guilt rushed over the young girl like a tsunami. Sure Sasuke destroyed the place by himself, but she kind of initiated it with her heartless words. _What was I thinking? "Itachi'd be proud" Way to fucking go, Sakura!_

"I hope Tatsuya can figure out what to do with him," the Hokage mumbled to herself, "If we're lucky the court will let him stay alive in jail on medication until he dies of old age."

Sakura blurted out the thing that had been on her mind ever since she heard about the situation, "I want to see him."

The Hokage all but laughed in her face, "Brilliant idea, Sakura! You're no doubt exactly who he wants to see right about now."

"Sensei, please, you've gotta let me talk to him just for…ten minutes! I need to apologize for what I said to him."

"I'm not gonna risk any further lapse in his sanity so you can say sorry."

"But…maybe I could talk him into giving us the information." She mused, "As a bargaining chip with the court and then they might seriously consider unsealing his chakra."

Tsunade sighed, "It's still pretty risky."

Sakura turned on her puppy dog eyes.

"God damn it, fine! Ten minutes not a nanosecond more, got it?"

"And we'll be alone."

"Oh, Christ," the Hokage thought viciously for a moment, "Yeah, fine! No guard supervision for ten minutes."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: With summer officially here I'll probably be uploading relatively faster...hopefully, but that won't start until I get back from a little trip to the Frisco where I don't expect I'll get on fanfiction because my laptop seems to be rebelling against the interwebs, but I should be able to do some serious editting on the plane ride and when I find myself bored in the hotel. **


	11. Refuse To Surrender

**A/N: Welcome to the "24" episode of this here fanfic…read on and you'll see just what I mean. **

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. FACT. The food smells good. OPINION.

Chapter title is from the song Time is Running Out by Papa Roach

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><p><span>The Start of The Ten Minutes<span>

The guard had just shut the door and flooded light into the containing cell so Sakura could see her teammate scrunched against a wall, wrapped in chakra restraints.

"Sasuke," she began immediately, not wanting to waste a nanosecond of time, "I came here to say I'm so sorry about what I said to you. I was frustrated and I just wanted to say something to get your attention, but I was totally out of line. I didn't mean a word of it."

He nodded, still not looking at her, "That's not the only reason you came."

"Yeah, I also came to tell you the court is expected to call for your execution."

"Hn."

"Don't you care?"

"Not...particularly." He dragged out every syllable. She wasn't sure if it was the drugs still lingering in his system or if he was doing it on purpose to kill time.

Sakura furrowed her brow, "Sasuke, please look at me. I'm sorry, okay? I wish I could make a more heartfelt apology than that, but I'm not good with words and I've only got eight minutes and four seconds left. Please don't just ignore me right now just to make me feel awful, cause I already do, but it's really going to hurt you in the long run."

Sasuke shifted his weight awkwardly. His finger drew figure eights on the prison's cold, hard floor, "I accept your apology," he whispered after some time.

"Good, so now we can try to work something out on what to do about the court of elders." _Seven minutes, fifteen seconds_.

"What do you suppose?"

"I think your best bet is to give the court the information that I _know_ you've got," her words were coming out rapid fire, "Just tell me where it is and me, Tsunade-sama, and Naruto will handle the negotiations with the court."

"I already told you the information stays hidden until I get total amnesty."

"Think for a second, Sasuke! The chances of that happening after what you did to your apartment are slim to none, and slim just left town!"

He snorted a laugh, "Clever."

_Six minutes, twenty-four seconds. _"Seriously! Where the fuck are the documents? Just trust me okay? I'll do everything I can to get you out of this, but you need to give me something to work with!"

Sasuke wasted two agonizing minutes considering her words then finally spoke, "Did you really see my mother? Her ghost?"

"We don't have time for that now!"

"Did you?"

Sakura grunted in frustration, "Yes!"

"Why would she show herself to you, and not me?"

"I don't know, just please tell me where you've got the—"

"I've spent eleven years praying to see her again, and she just pops up for you."

Sakura pressed her face against the bars, "Sasuke, I swear to you as soon as we get you out of this fix, we'll figure out what's happening with your mom, but please just let me help you now."

"There's nothing left for me in this world, and besides," He began tracing up his chains, "…If I die I'll see her sooner anyway, right?" Then tracing downwards.

Sakura had tears in her eyes now. He'd given up. Sasuke Uchiha had lost the will to live.

"No! Don't talk like that! You've still got so much to live for, you still have to revive your clan!"

"I won't damn a child by having it be mine." _Three minutes, thirty-two seconds._

The tears were streaming from her green eyes now, flooding her light face. Her fortitude was far too fatigued to cap her emotions anymore, "I need you!" And just like that she was thirteen again, begging him to stay. Begging him not to leave her alone again for what would be the last time. "I can't lose you now, not when I just got you back! If you leave me this time, I'll follow you I swear!"

He seemed to contemplate a speck of dirt on the floor for eighty-eight excruciating seconds, "Why?" He asked finally.

_Well there's no tip toeing around it now…_"Because I fucking love you, you asshole!"

That got him to make eye contact. _One minute, one second._

"So please don't leave me," she whispered through her sobs.

"There's a village sixteen miles west of here. Go to the Okoshi Inn and tell them you're looking for Hebi."

"Snake?"

"Just trust me," he sat up straight and continued, speaking much more quickly now, "Ask the name of the person who greets you. If their name is not Suigetsu, Juugo, or Karin, do not trust them. Once you find them tell the 'to hell with orders.'"

She nodded, wiping the tears from her face, "Alright. I'll go right now." Taking one last glance at him she smiled.

"Be careful, Sakura," his face was stoic as he pushed himself away from the wall on which he leaned, "Juugo sometimes loses control of himself, Karin is obsessive, and Suigetsu can be overly...animated" A small smirk appeared.

"Duly noted," she let out a quick giggle, appreciating his warning that was so dare she say it...warm? _Zero seconds._

"Take Naruto with you."

"Why?"

"Just do it…I'd feel better knowing you had someone with you."

The door screeched open and a guard told her sternly, "Times up."

She went with him, reluctantly but didn't offer any resistance. "Arigato, Sasuke-kun."

2 Hours Later

The two leaf ninja arrived at the Okoshi Inn at about noon. It seemed to be some kind of hot spring resort type thing judging by all the people walking around in towels, letting it all hang out and such. A lazy eyed employee sat at the front to top off the serene scene. Sakura, head held high and eyes straight ahead, marched straight to the front desk and demanded with an unusual amount of conviction in her voice, "We're here to see, Hebi."

Suddenly the man's eyes jumped all around, his body soon following, "I'll get them, now!" And he ran away.

"So we're looking for Juugo, Karin, and Suigetsu, right?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah."

After a few minutes a shirtless boy, about their age made his way into the lobby, rubbing his white hair with his towel, "So you've finally come, Sas—" he looked up from his drying, "You are way to pretty to be, Sasuke." He said upon laying eyes on Sakura, then looking over to Naruto he said, "And you…well, you're too fucking blonde."

A tall boy made his way into the lobby next. He was completely shroud in a blue cloak and looked totally out of place among the other guests who were as aforementioned: Letting it all hang out. Though, interestingly enough he seemed to have the same peace of mind the rest of them did.

"I'm Suigetsu," the white haired boy offered his hand to Sakura then Naruto to shake, then gestured to the taller boy, "That's Juugo."

The high pitched sound of a woman came from the hall, "SASUKE-KUN'S BACK!" she shrieked happily until she saw the two visitors that came in her boy-toy's stead, "Who the hell are you?" Sakura noticed the same employee from before peeking his head out from behind a door frame and mouthing something along the lines of, "Please, get rid of her!"

"I'm Naruto!" the blond blurted out.

"I could care less, who's the chick?"

_Oh, this bitch is going to get on my fucking nerves…_ "The chick is Sakura."

"Hmph," she shrugged and twirled her red hair.

Suigetsu sighed, "And that lovable character is Karin."

"Now that we all know each other, would you mind telling us how you found us here?" the Juugo boy finally spoke up, his voice calm and deep, he sort of seemed the most like Sasuke out of all of them, "Sasuke told us he'd find us himself."

"Sasuke is locked up," Naruto almost shouted, "And he needs the information he's got on Kumo to free him."

"We're assuming you all have it," Sakura added.

Suigetsu nodded, "We do, but our orders were clear enough. Boss-man said don't give anyone the information even if they say he sent them."

"Sasuke told me to tell you all 'to hell with orders.' He really needs those documents."

They all glanced at each other uncomfortably, unsure of whether or not to trust the rosette's words, finally Suigetsu spoke again, "I wanna believe you, really, and that does sound like something Sasuke'd say, but if there's even the slightest chance that you guys weren't sent by Sasuke…We're all dead."

"Come on! We really don't have time for this! Sasuke threatens to kill people all the time he doesn't necessarily always mean it, trust me," Naruto yelled, "Just give us the info, we're on Sasuke's team from the village, just trust us!"

"Keep your voice down," Karin whispered loudly.

"Oh, you're one to talk!" Sakura couldn't stop herself from saying it. _What is with my big mouth lately?_

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

Again, Sakura just couldn't help herself and imitated Karin's opening line with a squeal and an ever so dainty leg pop, "Sasuke-kun's back!"

Karin was about to retaliate when Suigetsu's laugh cut her off. Even the stoic Juugo wore a smirk.

"I like you, Sakura," Suigetsu declared through his chuckles, "Karin really needs that occasional shut down!...Tell you what. We'll get the documents and accompany you back to the village gates. You let them take Sasuke out, with no additional guards, so we know we won't get ambushed, and you guys can have it. Deal?"

"How about to just give us the damn—"

"Deal."

"What?" Naruto snapped, "We don't have that kind of pull with the jail."

"Tsunade will do anything for that information," Sakura whispered to him, "Even beg for a huge favor from the prison and ANBU." She turned back to Hebi, "Hurry up. Let's go."

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><p><strong>AN: So yeah…I know I was talking about faster updates and such ironically right before I took an abnormally long break between updates. Fun story! While I was in San Francisco I was inspired to write a sequel to my oneshot Strangers' Fall From Grace…but then my computer's hard drive over heated and I lost my four page file before I had a chance to USB it up and I had a total mental breakdown ^_^ ANYHOO, I'm back so make sure you review mi amici! **


	12. You Are My Heroine

**A/N: The penultimate chapter...enjoy! AND review.**

Disclaimer: I bought a Sasuke watch in China town so I like to think of myself as a shareholder...but legally Kishimoto owns him.

Chapter title from Hero/ Heroine by Boys Like Girls

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><p>"Now when we get to the gates, I'm going to go in and get Sasuke." Sakura said as they entered the final mile of their journey, "It may take a while since he's in prison."<p>

"Suigetsu, I still say we turn back!" Karin cried, "How do we know we can trust this freaky pinked haired chick."

_Okay, Bitch is getting on my nerves now…_

"Karin, please respect Suigetsu's choice." Juugo mused quietly.

"Hey, who put him in charge anyway?"

"We had a vote." Suigetsu replied simply, "And you lost remember?"

"Only because Juugo voted for you and you voted for yourself!"

"Yeah and you voted for _your_self. I won. Suck it up!"

She pouted and angrily adjusted her glasses, "If I didn't love Sasuke I would so be out of this stupid team!"

"If you couldn't sense chakra you so wouldn't be on this team in the first place!"

"Are you saying that's _all_ I do?" Karin whined, "I cook the food!"

"Sasuke's food," Suigetsu whispered to Naruto.

"I wash the clothes!"

"Sasuke's clothes." He whispered again earning some snickers from the blonde.

"And I do the navigation!"

"That one was just a lie."

Juugo sighed, "However it is true your fighting skills are virtually non-existent."

"Go back to being silent, Juugo!"

Sakura cut in, "Okay! I think here is a nice place to stop so we don't raise any alarms. I'll head on in now, you guys just wait." The rosette broke into full sprint towards the village and within ten minutes she was bursting into Tsunade's office.

"Hokage-sama!"

"Sakura! Did you get the information?"

"We have Sasuke's team that he left it with, but they've been given strict orders not to trust anyone with it, but Sasuke."

"Oh, you're not about to say what I think you are…" Tsunade squinted and pulled her arms toward her as if bracing for impact.

"We need to get Sasuke out there to make them reveal it!"

"And there it is," the Hokage threw her arms into the air, "Are you nuts?"

Sakura panted out the reply, "No!"

"I can't do that Sakura, the prison division of ANBU makes its own decisions. I have no real authority. All I can do is ask them to do stuff for me, they choose in the end. And no way are they letting Sasuke out."

"Not out-out. He can stay chained but he just needs to walk like a half a mile without guards to show his team he really is asking for the documents."

Tsunade shook her head. Contemplating.

"Tsunade-sama, we need this information! The future of Konoha could be decided by this!"

She slammed her fists on the desk and stood up, "Fine! Take a good look, Sakura, because after I come back from the begging I'm about to do I will no longer be a woman of dignity."

"Duly noted."

Mikoto watched the flicker of the light in her son's eyes as he forced himself to stay awake despite the strong sedatives the guards had given him. It had been almost a whole day since he last slept, and how Mikoto wished he would so that she could at least try to give him some peace of mine even if only temporary. But each time his head would drift down and his eyes would begin to close he'd jolt backwards, eyes wide open again….and again…and again.

Thankfully, he'd mellowed out since he was first imprisoned. It wasn't as if he'd fought against his captors or tried to escape, he just seemed so much more restless. But after Sakura's visit, he'd stopped fidgeting, twisting his handcuffs, and drawing figure eights in the dirt. _Oh…his head is drooping again. Maybe this time he'll…damn it! _He forced himself awake again.

Now, Mikoto had had just about enough of this. He needed to sleep. Staying up this long couldn't possibly be good for him!

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered even though she knew he couldn't hear her. Once again she struggled to stroke his messy black hair, "You need to get some sleep…" she caught a whiff of her son, "And a long shower."

Mikoto watched with relief as his head began to bow down yet again, but knew not to get her hopes too high since he'd probably done this about fifty times now, "Please, get some sleep."

"I…will…" Sasuke practically fell to one side with his eyes closed and his muscles completely relaxed.

A couple seconds passed before Mikoto realized she hadn't just imagined that, _Wait a second…_ "Did you just hear me?" her face was next to him in an instant waiting for the response, but all she got were soft, slowly strengthening snores. She inwardly cursed. Did he seriously just answer her? It seemed that he did, but she couldn't really know for sure until he did it again. _That can wait. Right now he should just rest…_She thought as she prepared to enter his dreams and alter whatever terrible nightmare he would have. Shut eyes and one deep breath before…_SCREEEEACH_.

Mikoto froze as if her movement actually made a difference in what was happening, and to her dismay Sasuke sat up again. Alert and eyes wide. _Son of a bitch!_ Immediately, she remembered a certain mother about eighteen years ago rejoicing just after putting her little, baby boy to sleep right before a certain husband and older son slammed the door as they came in from training. Effectively waking said baby boy. _Oh, that Sakura…_Mikoto wanted so badly to be the slightest bit angry with the girl even if only for a moment for undoing her work, but no such luck.

Light flooded into the grayness that was Sasuke's dwelling in Konoha's Nakano Prison. It was kind of ironic, him being there, in the prison his family built…

"Sasuke!" a colorful voice reached his ears then the loud, rough screech of the bars sliding open stung them, "Get up!" Aiming his wide, but dazed eyes up to find Sakura tugging hurriedly at his chains and arms, "Come on. We've got to hurry."

Sasuke, groggy from the sedatives he'd been given only a few minutes after her last visit, "What is it?"

"You're team is just outside the village gates."

Sasuke rested his head on Sakura's shoulder as they began to walk towards their destination, "Are they all here?" he whispered lazily in her ear.

"Yeah, Suigetsu, Juugo, and even that Karin."

"So you've met Karin," he sounded tickled by the thought of their encounter.

"Quite the character, she is." Sakura rolled her eyes, "Just as big a fan-girl for you as I was way back when."

"Bigger fan-girl." He smirked at Sakura's confused expression, "She's insanely obsessed. At least you left me alone while I slept."

"Oh…"

"I've never done anything with her," he added as if sensing her discomfort from the subject, considering she had just professed her love for him only a few hours ago.

They walked through the village in silence. The only sound between them being their footsteps and Sasuke's ragged breathing.

"I'm sorry about what happened between you and your parents."

Sakura's head spun so quickly to look at him she almost sprained it, "What?"

_Sasuke + Apology = ?_

"I was thinking a lot about what you said about seeing my mother," he replied simply, "So naturally I began to think about you and your parents." He finally found the strength to support his whole body weight and lifted his head from her shoulder, "And the fallout you had."

"Okay…" She lead off as if to ask him the significance of what he was saying.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault, we've been growing more and more distant for years. It had nothing to do with you."

"I know." He faced his head due forward, "I never said it did."

_Okay…_ "So, why are you saying so—"

"SASUKE-_KUN!" _Sakura was cut off by the shrill voice of a certain red haired kunoichi who proceeded to run up to Sasuke to hug and kiss his cheeks.

The raven haired gave an annoyed sigh along with his blonde comrade, "I was beginning to think you'd _never_ come for me, but you wouldn't strand me with Suigetsu forever!"

Sakura was about ready to smack the bitch off of him when Sasuke said quietly, "Get off." His voice reflected his apparent annoyance and was absolutely murderous. Karin, sensing this jumped away from him and took a few steps back before Juugo spoke, "It's good to see you're safe, Sasuke. We'd heard rumors of your execution and that you'd lost your mi—"

"Shut up," it was amazing how his quiet voice commanded the utmost respect. He glared at each member of his team as if daring them to speak again before he decided to speak, "Suigetsu, give Sakura the documents. Now."

"Hai!" the white haired boy answered with a jump and immediately pulled out a scroll from his bag to place it on the ground. He made several hand seals, placed his hands on the side of the scroll and on the circle in the middle appeared a thick looking manila folder. The ninja of the village hidden in the mist took the folder and quickly pushed it into the pinkette's hands. "You all have no more duties to Team Hebi," Sasuke stated, "I don't care what you do, now." He turned around began walking back to the village, not noticing the lost looks the ex-members of his team were exchanging with one another. The gazes did not escape Naruto and Sakura's notice, however, and they stayed to wonder what they were thinking a few seconds more.

"But what about my condition?" Juugo called out to the raven haired boy who stopped to address him without turning around, "What about it?"

"You're supposed to—I can't—How am I—?" he seemed trip over his own words and onto his knees to fall into a bow, "Sasuke, please allow me to keep following you." He pleaded, "I don't want to go back to how I was before Kimimaro found me! You're the only one who can help me find peace in this world."

_He actually wants to keep following Sasuke? And what does he mean he helped him find peace? _Sakura pondered before a sudden thud signaled Suigetsu had kneeled as well, "I want to keep following you too, boss."

"What about your swords?" Sasuke asked.

"I stand a better chance at getting them with you by my side."

Karin slowly kneeled as well, careful not to get grass stains on her tights, "Let me follow you too…please."

Obviously, Sasuke didn't need to ask _her_ reasoning for wanting to do so.

"It's not my permission to give." He replied listlessly and turned to Sakura.

"What?" She exclaimed at his sudden shift in focus.

He dragged his feet back to where they all stood and leaned in close to her to ask, ever so delicately, "Are you alright with this?"

"What are you talking about?"

"With them following me into the village."

"Why does it matter what I say?"

Sasuke's face twitched and he seemed to miss a beat or two before answered, "Because…it's not my call on who enters the village."

_Well…That's true, I guess…but that definitely was not his reasoning before._ "Um, sure. They can come into the village." His face remained indifferent as he nodded to the three bowing individuals that they could indeed enter the village with him, then he began walking as quickly as his chains would allow him towards the village. A few paces back were Naruto and Sakura, and an even larger distance back was Hebi.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto whispered to the rosette, "Did you _see_ the way they practically got down and begged him to let them stay with him."

She nodded.

"It was kind of weird, yeah?" the blond asked, "I mean…after the way he ordered them around and stuff. You'd think they couldn't wait to get away from him. You think they've got that Stockholm Syndrome thing?"

"Nah," she replied, "No matter how much he tries to counter it, Sasuke's got his own _special_ way with people. There's just something about him that makes it impossible to hate him."

"Being a bastard?"

Sakura sighed and smirked, "Oh, come on, Naruto. You and I of all people should know." They reached the village shortly after and the member of Hebi followed Naruto to Tsunade's office where they would face judgment. Meanwhile, Sakura brought Sasuke back to the prison, with the information tightly in hand she assured him she'd save him from whatever terrible fate the court of elders planned for him. Immediately after leaving the prison building she sprinted for her sensei's office, arriving just as Hebi was being led out.

"How'd it go?" she asked Suigetsu.

He smiled, showing his pointed teeth, "Luckily none of us committed any substantial crimes against the Leaf or any other villages, and Karin's the only one of us who was a true follower of Orochimaru, so she'll have to deal with that one solo, but for Juugo and me some community service here, a little house arrest there and we're pretty much citizens of Konoha."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"You better get in there. The Hokage said she wanted to talk to you and Naruto."

Sakura said goodbye to Suigetsu and Juugo, but ignored Karin, before entering the office, "Here it is, Hokage-sama, the information!" She placed the folder on the woman's desk who immediately grabbed and flipped through it. Her eyes shining with relief and amazement.

"The Uchiha wasn't lying…and he didn't disappoint," she murmured, eyes still scanning the pages, "There are graduation records, budgets, accounts on mercenaries, and a map of Kumo!" she exclaimed, "This will sway the vote in his favor, no doubt."

Two Days Later 

The Court

"Uchiha Sasuke has proven himself too dangerous to be left alive, never mind allowed to live freely within the walls of Konoha!" Danzo presented his case like a true totalitarian, bellowing out his ideas with arms flailing. Making damn sure everyone is paying him attention.

"It's _despicable_ to even suggest the boy will remain loyal to us! The moment his chakra is unsealed he'll try to slaughter ever last one of us and destroy the village!" His ridiculous claims made the Hokage gag, but he seemed to be convincing a few members of the court. "Have you all not heard the stories of the terrible things he's done? How will it look to the rest of the world if we allow a traitor, a fiend, into our midst? Into our ranks? It would be a disgrace! We'd become the butt of every government's jokes!"

"As long as we maintain the military strength we are at now, whatever the other villages say about us doesn't matter," Tsunade's political ally, Zentaro, pointed out calmly, "Granted the boy has a violent nature, however, he has exhibited a strong allegiance to Konoha by not betraying us the moment the Raikage's emissary contacted him."

"Violent nature?" Danzo scoffed, "Zentaro-san, the boy is a pure psychopath!"

"That's not Dr. Tatsuya's diagnosis."

Danzo rolled his eyes, "Tatsuya is a crack. I don't trust a single one of his diagnoses."

"So you're more knowledgeable on such things that a doctor that has spent over thirty years studying the mentally disturbed?"

"You don't need a fancy framed piece of paper from a university to be able to see a madman when you see one as blatantly as that Uchiha brat."

Zentaro shook his head, still calm, "You know that Uchiha Sasuke would be a fine addition to Konoha's ranks. With the combined power of the Sharingan and the kyuubi, not to mention the information Sasuke has provided, Kumo is barely even a threat."

"That is true, Danzo-san," another member of the court mused.

"I refuse to allow him to be able to call himself a part of our military."

"With all due respect," Zentaro said, "That is the decision of this council's vote not your own." The council members nodded their heads in general agreement. _Good one, Zentaro,_ the Hokage thought, _Use the court's pride in their entitlement._ She hated these types of debates where she had to remain objective so as to moderate, but hell she was human and biased too so it killed her that she couldn't participate in the debate. Seeing Danzo unable to counter almost made up for that this time though.

"And with that," Tsunade declared, "I think it's time we put it to a vote. Those in favor of execution say aye." The Hokage mentally cringed at the sound of affirmation that was slightly stronger than she'd hoped before saying, "And all those opposed?" A resounding response came from the court and it was undeniable that Sasuke Uchiha was going to live. The Hokage had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smiling so she could keep her objective front up.

"And in the case of unsealing Uchiha Sasuke's chakra? All those opposed?" Almost no one said yes except for Danzo who made it a point to practically scream his vote. Luckily enough though, all the council members who wanted to off the Uchiha were smart enough to realize if he was going to be kept alive, they might as well put him to use. "And all those for?" She asked totally ready for the fervent affirmative answer she received. "And is it fair to say everyone at this point will vote to have the boy on the battlefield against Kumo save for Danzo?"

No one disputed her assumption.

The Hokage stood, "Uchiha Sasuke is to be released immediately and as soon as Kakashi returns from his mission he is to unseal his chakra." She looked over at Danzo, almost smiling she continued, "At which point he'll be considered an elite part of our military forces. Only answering to myself and Hatake Kakashi." Danzo seethed. Tsunade didn't care and smirked a smirk worthy of the Uchiha brat himself right at Danzo as she said, "Have a fabulous afternoon." She slammed her gavel down with a thud that echoed a conclusion no one could change or dare to disagree with then left the court.

~()~

Sakura sat waiting in the lobby of Nakano Prison. She'd just given the papers the Hokage signed for Sasuke's release and now had orders to find a place for him to stay now that his apartment building had been condemned due to the damage done to the structure.

"Haruno Sakura," the guard she had spoken to not too long ago was back standing behind the desk, "Just sign these papers."

She jumped up and did so, prompting the man to press a button that shined red light from a huge bulb over a gleaming steel door. Little by little the heavy door slid open to reveal Sasuke standing coolly. If he wasn't wearing filthy rags for clothing, his bearing and serene look in his eyes would tell you he'd spent a week at the Okoshi Inn with the rest of Hebi. He walked towards the pink haired girl, the tiniest traces of a smile on his face.

"You're free to go," the guard told him before disappearing into the door behind the desk.

Leaving the two alone to stare at each other.

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><p><strong>AN: So close to the end. I really tried to play with Mikoto's maternal instincts and such, what'd ya think about it? REVIEW por favor!**


	13. No Longer The Lost, No Longer The Same

**A/N: The final chapter...**

Disclaimer: 13 chapters and I still don't own Naruto, huh?

Chapter title from the song Give Me A Sign by Breaking Benjamin

**And without any further ado...**

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><p>Mikoto trailed far enough behind Sakura and Sasuke so she could go completely unnoticed by the pin haired kunoichi. But still she was close enough behind to feel the awkwardness emanating from the pair of them. Although that was easy enough seeing as their unease was basically being broadcasted to whoever laid eyes on them and hastily shuffled out of their way. This was too much for her son, she was sure. Not only was he once again the center of Konoha's attention, but he was sharing the sweltering spotlight with someone who'd just confess her love for him after he spent the better part of his life nurturing and embracing hatred.<p>

~()~

The rosette took him to her own house drawing out a question from her son, "I expected you to take me to a hotel."

And to this she smiled, replying, "Well you let me stay at your house when I needed to and I thought I'd repay the favor."

"Hn," he caught sight of some shopping bags in the corner of the living room.

His curiosity didn't escape Sakura's notice, "I took the liberty of buying you some new clothes, seeing as just about all of yours got country fried." She was somewhat afraid her joke wouldn't be taken quite right, but it garnered a slight smile from the Uchiha, "Arigato." He replied.

She nodded then said, "The bathrooms at the end of the hall if you want to take a shower," she was of course alluding to the grime that stained his pale skin and the filthy prison rags that clung to him.

He went over to the bags and picked up a pair of shorts, some underwear and a t-shirt, looking vaguely disappointed by the blank back of it.

"I know how you like having the Uchiha crest on the back of all your clothes," sighed Sakura, "But I have absolutely no idea where to buy those."

He shrugged, "It's fine."

"Is there some factory out there I don't know about where you get them or…?"

He replied simply, "I sow them on myself." Then he turned and disappeared into the hall to take his much needed shower.

_Huh, so I was right…but I was half joking when I thought that. That is a funny image though. Sasuke sowing._

"I taught him how to do it you know," a sweet sounding voice came from just behind her made the rosette spin around to find herself face to face with the woman she saw in her home a little over a week ago. Sasuke's mother.

"T-taught him how to do what?" she stuttered. Why the hell was she still scared? Sure she was speaking to ghost, but one that obviously meant her no harm.

"To sow of course," she grinned widely, "He wanted to have that crest on all of his clothes just like his big brother."

Sakura sort of flinched as the woman stepped closer to her, "Please, I know this is kind of unnerving, talking to some dead stranger, but I want you to know you have no reason to be afraid or uncomfortable," her smile brightened, "I'll admit it's a bit unfair that I know so much about you from my son while you know almost nothing about me, so I'll try to answer any questions you have."

"Why can I see you and Sasuke can't?"

Mikoto's expression dropped a little bit, "Well that was an unfortunate place to begin."

"How so?"

"Because I have no idea," she responded, a grin still evident on her face despite the slight embarrassment of not being to answer the very first question, "I thought I'd get some brownie points to start off with by telling you my name or something."

"Oh," Sakura blushed, "Well, what is your name?"

The woman smiled, "Mikoto."

"How often are you with Sasuke?"

"I've been with him ever since I died. The first time I wasn't somewhere with him was the first night you saw me in your apartment."

"Is Sasuke's father around somewhere also?" Sakura asked, her eyes quickly darting around the room.

Mikoto chuckled at the girls nervousness, "No, no, you don't have to worry about him randomly popping up. My husband crossed over into the next life shortly after our deaths, but I wanted to look over my son a little longer."

Sakura swallowed, "Are you…_haunting_ him?"

"I'd like to think not," she said with a giggle, "At first I was just going to make sure he was taken care of, but then it just seems I can't leave him for some reason. Isn't that funny? Like he needs his mommy." There was a small break in her voice that reflected something out of place in her cheery tone. Hurt. If she'd actually been watching him all these years, she must have witnessed everything he'd ever done. Every single horrifying thing.

_I can't even imagine how awful it must be for a mother to watch her son spiraling out of control and being totally helpless to help it._ There were some things a mother just shouldn't have to know about their children, let alone witness. But that's what happened to Mikoto.

"Maybe he still does need you," Sakura suggested.

Mikoto scoffed affably, "That's a nice thing to say, Sakura-chan, but I don't think he's needed me since he was about nine or ten."

"That's not true. That time in the hospital room when he let me go because of something I said, supposedly," she observed the ever so tiny turn of Mikoto's head, "You actually said it didn't you? You possessed me or something!"

Mikoto tilted her head slightly, "I may have…borrowed your voice for a moment. I'm sorry if you feel you were somewhat infringed on, I'm not even sure _how_ I did it."

"You shouldn't be sorry at all," Sakura told her, afraid she'd given her the idea she was offended by it, "I should be thanking you! You saved mine and a lot of people's lives by doing what you did."

The older woman nodded swiftly. Her smile had almost completely faded. "What's wrong?" the rosette asked, concerned about the sudden change in her mood.

"Nothing, nothing," Mikoto replied, "It's just…he's changed so much. There are times when _I _can't even recognize him. I know he's getting better, and I'm not so naïve to think he'll ever be the little boy I raised, but still. I can't help but think of what he'd be like if he wasn't left alone." Her eyes drifted away, but soon she shook off her melancholy, "Anyway what's important is he's really trying to get better." Mikoto smiled at Sakura then looked down at the green necklace around her neck, smiling, "I'm so glad that he gave that to you."

"It's so beautiful," Sakura said, "He said it was your father's?"

"Sort of, but I guess it was actually my mother's."

Sakura stroked the pendant, "It is a rather feminine necklace after all."

Mikoto laughed, "Oh, I can't even imagine my father wearing it. I can't believe he told you it belonged to my father."

"Maybe he didn't know," Sakura shrugged, "Or he misspoke."

The woman shook her head, fashioning a knowing grin on her shining fair face, "No, no, he definitely wouldn't make a mistake like that. Not after all the times I told him the story of that necklace."

"The story?"

"My father's sister died when he was just a boy. She gave him the necklace, and made him promise he'd give it to his daughter, and of course he accepted, but when he met my mother he gave it to her. Of course this didn't exactly sit too well with his parents who told him he was dishonoring his sister's dying wish for some woman he'd just met," Mikoto smiled at Sakura, "And you know what he told them? He said, 'It makes no difference if I have it or if she has it because either way our daughter is going to get that necklace.'"

_Don't you want to save this and give it to your child like your mother did?_

… _It makes no difference to me._

"Sounds a bit familiar doesn't it?" Mikoto beamed, knowing full well about the thoughts running through her mind like a marathon.

"You're not trying to tell me that—"

"Sakura," a deep voice echoed from the hall, soon followed by a newly clean Sasuke who began to scan the room, "Who are you talking to?"

Sakura glanced nervously over at the spirit before her. _Oh, hell…I guess we might as well have it out now._ "Your mother."

The raven haired boy's head snapped to look straight at her jade eyes. "She's here." He stated more than asked, "Right now."

"Tell him I've always been here!" the Uchiha's mother insisted and Sakura obeyed.

"Always?" he seemed almost as nervous and uncomfortable as the rosette was, "So she's seen everything I've ever done since I was eight." He dropped himself onto the couch, rested his forehead on his palm, "I'm so sorry, kaa-san. Forgive me."

The sight of an apologetic Sasuke was perhaps the most foreign thing to ever reach her eyes and get processed by her brain. Even after he showed her some sort of sympathy for the fallout between her and her parents, this _sorry_ was different. Extremely so. Sasuke Uchiha feels no remorse. He regrets nothing. _And he is not a repentant person._ But here he was confessing guilt asking for forgiveness. Actually taking responsibility for his actions.

"Tell him it's alright," Mikoto whispered, obviously trying to hide that familiar sound of hurt in her voice, "He doesn't owe me any apology. It's in the past, and he wasn't in his right mind."

"Please don't make up excuses for me," he said after Sakura repeated his mother's message to him, "I knew exactly that what I was doing was wrong…you were the last person I wanted to ever see that."

"I'm not the person you should be asking forgiveness from," she sat down on the couch next to her son. The pain that he could not even see her there showed in her eyes clear as day, "I wasn't wronged here. You have a lot of things to be sorry for, Sasuke-kun, but not one of those things has anything to do with me. If you really do want to make up for what I've seen you do, if you really want to be forgiven, just keep going down the path you're already headed."

Sakura once again passed on the message to Sasuke.

"How will I do that?" he asked staring at a distant space where he must have imagined his mother to be standing. Sakura didn't want to spoil the harmony of the moment by sayingcorrecting him, and truth be told she didn't have the heart to remind Mikoto of her invisibility to her son. As if she needed more reminding anyway.

"You'll never be able to truly right your wrongs, all you can hope to do is turn the page on that chapter of your life and move on."

Sasuke nodded after hearing his mother's wise words from Sakura.

"And besides," for the first time since her son had walked into the room she looked to Sakura and gave her an sly smirk, no doubt the one Sasuke's smirks always echoed. "You and he have a future together you need to focus on."

The rosette's mouth dropped, "W-what are you talking about?"

"Come on, Sakura, you're a smart girl. I'm sure you've put it together by now," Mikoto almost winked, "My father and Sasuke are cut from the same cloth. They always know exactly what they want and how they feel, but they'd die if anyone else did…But don't worry. It won't be long before you hear him tell you himself."

Sakura kept gazing wide eyed at the woman in front of her.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke looked up at Sakura who could sense the slightest concern written on his pale face. The rosette wanted to tell him that there was absolutely nothing wrong and that for the moment the world was actually at peace, but she'd forgotten how those words sounded. Sasuke stood up, "What did she say?"

Mikoto rose as well and looked off into the distance, "I can see…"

"Fugaku," Sakura told Sasuke.

"My father? He's here too then?"

Sakura shook her head, "I guess, but I can't see him."

Mikoto tore her eyes away from where her husband must have been to look back at her son once more, "Sayonara, Sasuke-kun," she reached her hand up towards his head, hesitating as she did so, she ran her hands through his hair. Tears streamed down her face.

Sasuke flinched at the contact that, to him, seemed to come from nowhere, but soon he realized exactly what it was and he turned in the direction it came from. His eyes landed just a fragment of an inch away from his mother's. Sakura didn't even need to tell him what his mother had said, and she thanked him silently because she honestly didn't think should be the one to tell him. "Sayonara, Kaa-san."

Mikoto glanced over at Sakura, and waved as her figure grew fainter and fainter until she completely disappeared. Sasuke's hand drifted onto the top of his head where his mother's hand had just been and he looked over to her, "She's gone." Once again, he wasn't asking.

Sakura couldn't meet his gaze. With her eyes never leaving the floor she walked over to him wanting so badly to say something to try to comfort him, but once again she found herself with a wayward tongue. Luckily enough for her, Sasuke didn't seem to have that problem, "Arigato, Sakura."

"It was nothing," she said with a shrug, fighting the urge to giggle nervously, "All I did was repeat what she said."

A smile came to his face when Sakura was sure he only meant to smirk, "You've given me a chance at a real life."

Tears were breaking the surface of her eyes now and all she could manage to do was mumble a barely audible you're welcome. Her fingers crept up to gently stroke the onyx stone and traced the jade kanji for dignity. Before she knew it her fingers were joined by slightly colder and paler ones, "Before I came into the room, she was telling you the story, wasn't she?"

There was no denying it.

"So you must know what I've been planning to say to you since I gave you this necklace." He dropped to one knee, "I was hoping to do this after purchasing a ring, but if a shinobi's plan is already revealed, he must deviate from it."

Sakura was absolutely at a loss for words and her emerald gaze had been dragged into the dark holes of obsidian eyes. Her hands were in his now, feeling his anxiety in his rigid, but gentle grip.

"I used to find it exceedingly annoying that you've made me feel an emotion I've worked to bury for eleven years in a matter of weeks, but I've realized that I failed a long time ago," he took his time with his words, betraying not a single sign of uncertainty, "Because I've loved you since we were thirteen."

Sakura's heart raced…Those were the words she'd longed to hear from him for years, and now that they had escaped his lips, she knew exactly what to expect…

"Haruno Sakura…Will you marry me?"

Her shaking knees finally gave out and she dropped to throw her arms around Sasuke, "Yes!"

In the striking moment of bliss, Sakura managed to push a motionless Sasuke onto the ground laughing playfully as she looked down at him, "You let your guard down."

He smirked, "It's been known to happen every once a decade."

Usually she was never one to pass up a rare witty conversation with the raven haired boy, but this time she thought it was worth the sacrifice to steal a kiss and all the things that followed.

**..:.**

_Far, far away. In a land that Time can't change. __Long, long ago. In a place of Hearts and Ghosts._

_This is a Call To Arms. Gather Soldiers._

_Time to go to War._

_Here we are at the Start._

* * *

><p><strong>AN (does anyone read my long ranty Author's Notes anyway?): And so with that ends this series. I hope it lived up to any expectations anyone may have had. In retrospect there are a few things I may have changed, but all in all I'm so fucking ecstatic about how well recieved this fic has been.  
>So thanks to everyone who fav'd or story alerted Hearts and Ghosts. An epic all caps shout out to anyone who ever reviewed: I MOTHERFUCKING LOVE YOU GUYS! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LETTING ME KNOW WHO YOU FEEL IT REALLY GAVE ME THE DRIVE TO DO MY BEST AND REALLY PUT MYSELF OUT ON A LIMB! (my caps lock botton just bought a rape whistle) I tried to reply as much as possible to my reviews, but I know I can do better and I hope to for my fics to come.<br>SEQUEL PLUG! I've set it up quite nicely for the sequel I am in the process of writing. Should you all care for something like that you should really tell me in the REVIEWS!  
>I do watch <em>Ghost Whisperer<em> in case anyone was catching a case of **déjà vu. **  
><strong>


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